When Universes Collide
by ButtButtDoodle
Summary: A collection of AU drabbles, where Kagome and Sesshoumaru are always in opposite spectrums of their worlds. But opposites have a tendency to attract.
1. Midnight Hour

**Disclaimer:** Inuyasha and its characters belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. I just write bad fanfic for it.

**A/N:** HEYO! Ange here again! So while I'm still writing for my other stories, I thought I would give you guys something to tide you over during the long wait. The following are a compilation of AU drabbles, romance letters to my favorite couple that I have collected over the years and have come to terms with that -while I will never finish or continue them- I hope they amuse and inspire this loving fandom, as you have amused and inspired me. Enjoy.

* * *

**Midnight Hour**

**888**

Now _there_ was an interesting woman, Sesshoumaru thought with amusement.

The midnight train rattled noisily, packed despite the late hour of the day, a cacophony of sounds that were an ode to the restless nature of the city. Among the sea of black business suits and pressed office dresses that overwhelmed the small compartment, Sesshoumaru stood out like a radiant living torch.

His long, silky hair had been meticulously braided into a perfect, white plait that ended just above his belt. An equally white suit tailored his long and fit form to the heavens, oozing the distinguished scent of 'rich' without seeming pretentious; a delicate act that only one as dignified as Sesshoumaru could pull off with acrobatic grace. The monochromatic color palette of whites was broken only by the pulsating red that edged the ends of his sleeves almost up to his elbows. Upon closer inspection of the red fabric, one could detail a hexagon pattern, boxing inside most delicately a blossom – some family crest of sorts, perhaps. It was a floral and feminine design to be sure and would have been particularly softening of the sharp figure his character cut...had it not given the unnerving illusion that the sleeves of his suit were dipped in freshly-spilled blood.

Despite his absurd appearance among the mundanity of the foot traffic, nobody in the train paid him any mind. Not for lack of interest, mind you. But Sesshoumaru was well aware that, to the common person, he emanated an aura that many would poorly describe as "dangerous", an adjective that fell comically short. It was because of this very aura, which he so carefully dispersed through sheer will alone, that those around him left the beautiful man to his own devices, ignored to wallow in his grandeur.

The lack of attention suited Sesshoumaru just fine. It meant more freedom of his person to move as he pleased and less resistance for the things that he desired.

If Sesshoumaru had been the type to grin he would have; yet as it was against his very nature to express any outward emotion, he settled on surveying her almost casually over half-lidded lashes. The tall man sat a bit straighter in the uncomfortable train bench, drinking in her figure, the small world of the train and its present inhabitants dissipating into nothingness as his field of vision narrowed down to the lone creature that held his attention captive.

She was the perfect picture of modesty: black sensible shoes with buckles and no heel, paired with a grey mousy skirt that skimmed the delicate bones of her ankles, plus matching grey vest and coat. Her straight, black hair was coiffed in a conservative no-nonsense up-do, that better befit a retired secretary than her much younger features. All in all, her outfit lacked a single trace of sex appeal and, ordinarily, she would've passed by without his notice; another faceless nobody in his tumbling existence to be processed through his memory and just as quickly forgotten...had it not been for her hands. Or, more specifically, what was covering said hands.

That was because, despite the almost clerical wardrobe she had cocooned herself in, inside this deceptively-modest creature lived a daring woman who wore _leather_ gloves the color of crimson _red_, pulsing and loud against the grey canvas of her clothes. Both color and texture were hypersexual - almost vulgar- on her virginal fingers, and drew his interest hungrily.

Sesshoumaru's curious yellow eyes met her own blue gaze, shy and skittish, that red-gloved hand tightening upon the train pole uncertainly, and he smiled to himself.

He had found his newest target.

The train hissed to a stop and she skittered out like a frightened mouse. Without looking away from his prey, Sesshoumaru got up from his seat and followed her out.

His tongue flicked over elongated fangs in anticipation. Idly, he wondered if her blood would be as red as her gloves.

* * *

Kagome kept walking, her steps deceptively light and steady, even as she was aware that she was being followed.

The petite raven dared not look back. Yet she was certain, with that blessed intuition that most females were graced with, that her stalker was indeed behind her. To be specific, he had been following her since she got off at the train station, and Kagome cursed under her breath.

She should have listened to Sango and not left the clerical office so late. Or at least take her firm partner up on the offer to share a cab. But Kagome, ever the practical girl, was trying to save up on money.

_Now I'm going to get murdered for being a cheapskate,_ she thought ruefully.

It was a cold night too, so the amount of people walking outside was minimal for what was the norm. Most had turned in for the night in anticipation for the supposed thunderstorm headed their way. The loneliness of the streets only served to heighten her fear and paranoia, where innocent shadows looked like demons ready to pounce. Kagome turned a corner, hoping,_ praying_ really, that the little market next to her apartment would still be open. She could hide out in there for a while; perhaps the stalker would give up and leave her alone when he realized his prey was not worth his time.

At exactly the same moment that she finished rounding the sidewalk corner, something large barreled against her. The force was so strong Kagome was immediately knocked off her feet, giving a small pained cry as she was sent sprawling into a small dark alley.

Kagome looked up with a gasp as the entry to the alley was completely filled by a large, black form. The man was massive, blocking the streets with his entire body and dimly Kagome realized how exceptionally small she was. His features were hidden by shadows, except for one broad smile that sent her heart hammering against her chest. This was it, she thought dejectedly, eyes glazing over-

"Are you alright, miss?"

A hand, large but gentle, wrapped around her forearm and pulled her up. Kagome's body was still tittering with the aftershock of adrenaline, but she puffed out a nervous laugh at the man. "Yes, thank you. I should have watched where I was going, sorry." she apologized unnecessarily, a nasty habit that she had been trying to kick. Nerves had a way of hijacking her brain though, and politeness was something horrifically ingrained in her.

"_You're_ sorry? I should be the one apologizing, miss! Nearly knocked you to the next state! Come here, step into the light so I can see if I hurt you."

Kagome obliged, eager to be out of the alley and into an open area that offered escape routes. The stranger was being nice enough; but Kagome had worked enough criminal cases as a lawyer in the district attorney's office to know how folly it was to blindly trust men in dark alleys. Taking advantage of the light offered by the near lamppost, Kagome looked up at the stranger.

He was young, younger than she had suspected by the deep timber of his voice or the politeness which he addressed her with. His boyish face, unremarkably plain, was twisted with concern, clear grey eyes looking her up and down anxiously. His eyes settled on a spot and he groaned miserably. Kagome followed his horrified gaze down to her skirt, where it rested on the most monstrously huge stain she had ever seen. Kagome didn't even want to think about what sort of liquid it could be, desperately ignoring the foul smells coming from the alleyway behind her.

"I'm so sorry!" the young man bemoaned, covering his forehead with one hand as he brushed mousy brown hair aside. "Oh God, I- I can pay for that!" He assured her.

_I really fricking doubt that, this is Marc Jacobs, bichh_, Kagome thought with chagrin. Outwardly, she plastered a smile on her face, waving a dismissive hand. "Don't worry about it, it's just clothes." _That cost half of my previous paycheck, but sure. Just clothes!_ she screamed shrilly on the inside. It was tough being a fashionable lawyer in the city.

The boy looked completely unconvinced, and he shook his head. "No, seriously! Give me your number and I can Venmo you the dry cleaning tab!"

"Look, that's really sweet but seriously, it's fine!"

"Please!" He begged, taking Kagome by surprise with the intensity of his voice. "My old man would box my ears if he ever found out I did something like this to a lady! Let me make it up to you somehow, miss! I can pay you, or take you somewhere to clean up - anything!"

Kagome softened at his exasperation. The young man must've been around her younger brother Souta's age, and her sibling was barely a freshman in college. Kagome sighed, trying to come up with a perfectly polite way to blow him off and still appease him; by the intensity of his gaze, he didn't look like he was going to let it go. Thinking, her eyes strayed down the dark street, knowing she still had three more blocks to walk in this dangerous city before she made it to the safety of her home. And suddenly, with a shiver, she remembered why she had been so scared in the first place.

"Actually..."Kagome started, an idea blinking into existence. The boy perked up, looking like a hopeful puppy. He might be young but, casting a glance at his athletic build, he would definitely work for what she needed.

"This is going to sound weird but...do you mind walking me home?" she asked him, biting her lip and hoping he wouldn't take this the wrong way.

_Too late_, she thought as a blush made itself prominent on his face. "Me?" he asked, incredulous.

She hesitated, wondering if she should abandon the idea altogether, but forged on. "The thing is...before bumping into you, I thought someone was following me."

"Really? When? Now?" The boy looked around, his brows drawing down and his chest puffing up menacingly. "Do you think he's still around?"

Kagome put up a placating hand up, appreciating his bravado but needing someone level-headed. "Look, I'm not even sure if there _was_ someone, to be honest. But I'd feel better if I had an escort to keep me company the rest of the way, and this could be your way to pay me back. If you don't mind that is." she amended quickly.

"No, of course not, miss! Nights are dangerous times for ladies like yourself. You lead the way, and I'll be sure to keep a look-out for any weirdos!"

Kagome giggled, appreciating his youthful enthusiasm but also out of relief. "Perfect. Well, it's this way." Nodding to the right side of the street awkwardly, she began walking towards her destination. The boy quickly followed, keeping an appropriate distance to her and already calming her frazzled nerves as he dove into a long explanation of what she could best use to remove the stain once she got home. The prattle was meaningless - nothing could possibly salvage this skirt - but comforting, as the shadows in the streets receded into the darkness and the night appeared less frightening.

Perhaps it hadn't been totally awful to ruin her skirt if it meant peace of mind and a safe passage to her home.

_Better a trip to the laundromat than to the morgue,_ she thought with dark amusement.

* * *

"Well, this is me!" The short raven announced, looking up at the brick building she currently rented. All the lights from her neighbors' windows were off, which didn't surprise her. What with the lateness of the hour and most of the residents being well past the age of 70 - Kagome being the only exception - she was used to coming to a quiet and dark building. That suited Kagome just fine; quiet neighbors were a rare blessing to find in a bustling city like this one, after all.

"Thanks again for walking me home." With an appreciative smile, Kagome extended her hand towards the boy, preparing her farewells. "My name's Kagome, by the way." she said, as the boy reciprocated and held her hand in his much larger one. "Kagome-"

"Higurashi." the boy finished, smiling as well; except his smile didn't quite reach his eyes. The familiar way he said her last name left Kagome feeling cold. "Yes, I know. Kagome Higurashi, graduated first in her class from TCC and is the current rising star in the DA's office."

Kagome felt her mouth go dry. Weakly she tried to tug her hand away, but it was trapped in the man's unrelenting grasp. The same fear that had possessed her in the train came back, ten-fold. "How...?" Kagome began, but her voice cracked.

The boy laughed, a loud sound in the empty night, his hold on Kagome's hand tightening. She cried out. "Oh, I know a lot about you, _miss_." he murmured darkly, the polite title no longer endearing but dripping with sarcasm. "You take two tea's every morning from the small cafe across your office, and work well into the night, even after all your colleagues have already left. You take walks around the park and enjoy reading from your windowsill on your days off - which admittedly aren't that many, you really should take better care of your health, Kagome." he chided her with mock concern, even as the grip on her hand and her upper arm, where his other hand had settled, were bruising. "And most importantly, you are ruthless in the court, earning the reputation of a lawyer with a _take-no-prisoners_ attitude, even though you look so meek and sweet."

Kagome squeaked as he pulled her closer, and she could feel his nose pressing against the crook of her neck. Disgusted, she turned her face away, desperately trying to push him off, her mind racing. The raven struggled to remember what she had learned in that one self-defense class she had attended with Sango all those years ago when they first moved into the city, but all the raven could think of was to run, run, _run_-

"Let me go or I'll scream!" Kagome threatened with a growl, trying fruitlessly to recapture her hands. The boy continued, as if Kagome hadn't spoken.

"I thought you'd be different with my old man, though. You know, it being his first offense and how old he was. First time I saw you in the courtroom during his trial I thought 'No way can someone this pretty punish my family.'"his grasp on her was painful, and tears welled up behind her eyes. "But no. You gunned for fifteen years to life in prison, no parole. That's a death sentence to a man his age. And all because some lying broad accused him of assault?!"

Kagome stopped struggling long enough to absorb his words, and nearly groaned. So this was all because of a conviction? Kagome had heard of acquaintances at work being harassed by disgruntled family members in public. Being a lawyer in the people's court meant you made enemies with every criminal you went up against. It was only natural that among your many convictions and victories of putting scum behind bars, you'd make some enemies along the way. More often than not, those adversaries would present themselves in the form of children or spouses that were upset their criminal head of household had been given their just desserts. But being followed and tricked like this to her home for a felony assault charge; this was too much!

"Listen, I don't know who your father is. But we can talk-"

Kagome didn't get to finish what she was saying when the man suddenly released her. She was surprised, but not as surprised as when he closed the distance between them again and punched her straight across the face.

Kagome went sprawling on the sidewalk like a bag of groceries, sure that her jaw had been dislocated. She would have yelled, but the shock of the punch and the impact to the hard ground had been enough to knock all the air out of her. She couldn't see them, but she was certain her hands were a bloody mess, the delicate palms stinging were the cement floor had taken the skin off. And for the first time that night, including her walking from the train and falling into the alleyway, she was truly afraid. Kagome realized just how much danger she was in when, opening her eyes and blinking away the darkness at the edge of her vision, she suddenly saw him swing his boot back.

And then the kicking began.

Instinctively, Kagome rolled into a ball, her arms thrown across her head to protect what little she could, but his kicks were merciless, unrelenting. For the first few seconds of the beating, she thought he would grow tired, would spit at her with a warning threat of some kind and then leave her injured and humiliated in her doorstep. But as the seconds dragged on, his kicks growing in fervor, the pain in her body only intensifying, she realized...

...he was going to kill her.

The thought should have paralyzed her. It certainly cooled her blood, made her heart skip and her breathing stop.

He was going to kill her?

Kagome fisted her hands and grit her teeth.

He might have ruined her Marc Jacobs skirt-

-But he was not going to kill her without a fight.

As the boy's heavy boot neared her stomach one more time, Kagome disentangled her arms and lunged for him. The man yelped, as Kagome held on to his leg like a vice, knowing she was not going to make it out of this alive but intending to leave as much DNA evidence as she could. She bit and scratched at the offending appendage, marking him as the killer and leaving as much damage as she could; until the man snapped out of his surprise and began to kick her in the head instead. Kagome tried, truly tried, to hold on longer, but one kick struck her hard enough to snap her head back painfully until she was sure it would leave permanent spine damage and she let go with a cry.

"You fucking crazy bitch!" he yelled murderously, and Kagome closed her eyes, too weak to even protect whatever part of her body wasn't already bruised. She felt him hover over her menacingly, and tried to prepare herself for whatever was coming -

-when somewhere from behind them, she heard a growl.

It was deep and feral, the kind of animalistic sound that made the hairs on your arm stand at attention in primal fear.

For a moment, Kagome thought a dog had wandered upon the scene and, sensing the violent aura, had reacted instinctively in her defense. But then her attacker's next words left her confused.

"Who the fuck are you?" the young man asked, but gone was the brutal edge to his voice, replaced by a hint of hysteria that made him sound as young as he looked.

Kagome heard a strange gurgle, and realized it was her own rattling breath. She could feel liquid spilling from her mouth, but she couldn't be sure if it was blood from the inside of her mouth for being hit on her face or worse, from a punctured lung. Straining, she opened her eyes to see what had caused the boy to cease his attack on her.

Her consciousness leaving her fast, Kagome used the last of her strength to look up. Her gaze was clouded, red dots spotting everywhere, but behind the fog she thought she saw a tall white figure standing a few feet away. Under the neon lights of the city, his white form seemed to glow with a white halo, beautiful and surreal. His silhouette cut a sharp threatening line in the darkness around him, and dimly she wondered if angels were meant to be so scary.

Strength gone, Kagome's eyes drooped shut. She thought she heard one last growl and the boy scream in terror before the darkness took her.

* * *

**A/N:** This was something I wrote during my breaks at work. I had been watching a lot of crime dramas and wondered what it would be like for our favorite characters to be in a modern world where Sess was a demon (or even vampire of sorts) protecting strong but very human DA Kagome. I didn't really have a story planned around it though so this was the extent of where it went. Maybe one day I'll pick it up, maybe not. What do you guys think? R&R is always welcome!


	2. Colorblind

**Disclaimer: **Inuyasha and it's characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. I just write fanfic for it.

**Author's Note: **A short one after last chapter's long read. I got this idea from watching one of those animal documentaries and one of the facts stuck with me. Bet you can find it. Enjoy! And as always, R&R to know if you're enjoying this series!

* * *

**Colorblind**

**888**

He was born without the ability to see colors.

If one were to ask him, Sesshoumaru wouldn't know the color of his mother's hair or his father's eyes, much less his own, no matter how much you pressed him on the matter. He never knew the childish joy of buying a new toy and being asked whether he preferred it in red or green, because honestly, he couldn't understand the difference. What were you supposed to answer when your entire world consisted of a gamut of greys, whites and blacks?

Growing up, it had been an inconvenience, to be sure, but nothing too debilitating. For example, Sesshoumaru was always careful when dressing, choosing what others had described to him as "white" and "black" as his clothing of choice. Where many thought him fashionable for such a minimalist aesthetic, he saw it as practical. There was no guesswork in choosing two colors over and over again, after all. And while there may be no excitement in wearing monochromatic every single day, it was safer than the alternative of having a closet that was visually offensive.

Therein lay Sesshoumaru's outlook on life in a nutshell: safe. If you chose safe clothes, safe kitchen plates, safe jobs, safe partners, no one ever need know that you were broken or imperfect. It had served him well thus far, and Sesshoumaru was a simple enough man that 'safe' was good enough for him.

Although naturally, he found himself longing for the simple joys that others took for granted. It was the little things he envied, like enjoying a movie and remarking on the particular color of a scene, or a walk in a beautiful spot and appreciating the burning colors of a sunset (burning to others, but merely bright white and grey to him). Or even more importantly, in the private moments were he dare admit it to himself, looking into the face of a lover and committing to memory every pixel of color that made up their features.

Yet in Sesshoumaru's grey world, everything looked the same, and it had for the past three decades. All he could do was be at peace with it.

So imagine his surprise when the new neighbors moved in next door…and for the first time in his life, Sesshoumaru knew what the color _blue_ looked like.

Her eyes were the most amazing shade of blue he had seen (the only shade of blue he'd ever seen).

Despite never having seen the color and as such not knowing exactly what that color was supposed to even look like, Sesshoumaru could somehow recognize it immediately. He could _see_ it. See _her_. The girl's whole aura shined in color…a beautiful prism that drew his eyes to her like a moth to a flame.

He was both frightened and excited.

And for the first time in his life, 'safe' was not how Sesshoumaru wanted to live anymore.

* * *

"Kagome, are you done yet?" An irritated voice, belonging to her roommate Sango, called from downstairs. Kagome rolled her eyes, pushing the earring into place and closing her desk cabinet where she kept most of her jewelry with the side of her hip.

"Coming!" The petite raven called down. But before she headed down the stairs, she stopped as she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Her light blue summer-dress flared delicately across her knees, dipping snugly into her small waist. Simple, but pretty, like all summer-dresses should be. She had to admit, when she took the time and effort to get dolled up, Kagome cleaned up rather nicely.

The 25-year-old darted down the stairs to meet up an exasperated Sango. The tall brunette flipped her ponytail in annoyance, a tick Sango always did when aggravated and Kagome was sure Sango was unaware of. "You look gorgeous, Kags, now let's go!"

"Sango, the park ain't going nowhere!" Kagome teased, purposely loitering near the entrance and taking her time putting on her sneakers.

"Yes, but the sun is! I want to check out the area before it gets too dark!"

"Al right, al right, jeesh! Done!" Kagome announced, standing up and smiling up innocently at the brunette. Despite herself, Sango found herself smirking back at her roommate. "If you weren't so cute, I'd smack you. Now…"she said, dropping her voice conspiratorially. "Let's go scope out the neighborhood and see if there are any hot guys!" Sango grinned playfully at an amused Kagome and opened the door.

Standing at the entrance, his arm poised to knock, was Sesshoumaru. He seemed just as surprised as the two girls frozen at the door.

Sango blinked rapidly, her cheeks flushing. "Well, that was fast."

* * *

"Dogs sure have it tough." Kagome mused, as she watched the sweet Labrador walk away with it's owner. "Not being able to see in color must be torture."

"It is a myth." Sesshoumaru corrected.

"What is?" Kagome asked back with interest, resting her chin on her upturned palm, turning in her seat to better look at him.

"Dogs are able to see _some_ colors, only, not quite like humans do." He explained, clearing his throat.

"Let me put it in simpler terms. Instead of seeing the rainbow as most humans do - violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red - dogs would see it as: dark blue, light blue, gray, light yellow, darker yellow, and very dark gray. Their world is for the most part monochromatic, yes...but some colors do stand out." He finished, surreptitiously looking at her eyes and the only color he himself cared about. Sesshoumaru wished he had even half as much color-reading ability as a mutt, so that he could appreciate the lovely girl beside him even more...

Suddenly Kagome laughed, taking Sesshoumaru by surprise. He didn't think what he had said had been particularly funny. Sensing his confusion, Kagome laid a placating hand on his knee, dissipating his sudden insecurity and instead heightening his senses to the spot where her fingers graced his thigh.

"You sure know a lot about dogs!"

He chuckled, hiding his surprise at her sudden familiar touch. "Collecting trivia is a hobby of mine. Not a particularly interesting one, I'm afraid."

Kagome squeezed his knee, and Sesshoumaru tried to squash the delicious happiness pooling in his belly as he looked into the dazzling blue of her eyes.

"Well, I'd personally love to hear more about it." She said kindly, her smile radiant.

* * *

A/N: Fluffy fluff is fluffy. I remember hearing that dog fact and wondered to myself if our favorite dog-boys from Inuyasha would also be colorblind. This is more of a "slice of life human Sess/human Kag" story that I don't see going anywhere, but still think it's a cute plot bunny to play with.


	3. Survival

**Disclaimer:** Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of one Rumiko Takahashi. I just write fanfic for it.

* * *

**survival**

**888**

"I truly believe," Sesshoumaru began solemnly, "that tonight we should share sleeping arrangements, the two of us. To preserve body heat and ensure our survival, of course."

Kagome stared at the demon lord pointedly, searching for a trace of emotion in that usually-emotionless face of his. But the man had a devastating poker-face, revealing absolutely nothing except the barest hint of a pucker between his eyebrows, suspiciously-quirked upwards in what Kagome surmised was his interpretation of 'concern'.

The night was hot and humid; the kind of muggy night where one could literally feel the heat to their very pores, promising many summer days ahead in their journey. Even the thought of lying in her sleeping bag -which was made to preserve heat, as opposed to the cool, smooth ground of their campsite- had seemed uncomfortable to the young miko. Nevermind that Sesshoumaru was a demon and it would take extreme thermal conditions for him to be affected by a sensation as pathetically-human as "cold".

Indeed, with all these facts considered, one would be hard-pressed to die of pneumonia.

Without breaking eye contact, Kagome raised her own eyebrows - a perfect mirror of Sesshoumaru's concerned face - and nodded. "I completely agree, my lord. We should do so naked, as well. For ensured survival, of course."

* * *

A/N: Fun ridiculous fluff.


	4. Angels

**Disclaimer:** Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi. I just write fanfic for it.

**Author's Notes:** Another short one. Like mentioned previously, this collection is just meant to host those incomplete thoughts that pop into my head and I quickly write up on my phone. They may find themselves being incorporated into other fics, or may not, but I like these short creative exercises. They keep me active without the pressure of having to write an entire story. Hopefully you enjoy these too.

* * *

**Angels**

**888**

Kagome approached slowly, feeling very much like a wild-life photographer in one of those nature specials, about to witness something extraordinary.

Unaware of her presence, Sesshoumaru leaned his arms against the metal railing overlooking the ocean, and for the first time she could say that his face was calm, peaceful even. He looked the most relaxed she had ever seen the stoic man, and Kagome watched him for a moment longer from the shadows of their shared hotel room, privately enjoying him.

He was wearing a white button-up shirt, white linen pants and no shoes, and despite the almost ethereal look so much white lent to him, there was a sense of danger that radiated off the man in waves. He did not need to look like a feudal warrior to always inspire that primal fear at the back of her neck, that now after the past few days of travelling together had mingled with desire. Gone was the heavy armor and layers of fabric that made up the dangerous Demon Lord, Sesshoumaru-dono of the Lands of the Moon. Instead, in his very human attire and casual attitude, stripped away from the physical shackles of his title, he looked almost approachable, if just as beautifully intimidating.

_The angel of death on vacation_, she thought with a quiet laugh.

Yellow eyes finally looked up at her soft giggling, and the illusion broke. Kagome's breath hitched at the gaffe of being caught, but then his sharp features melted and softened as he drank her in, his examination slow and languid and sending tendrils of thrill up her spine.

"My angel of light." He murmured, beckoning her to him with a slow sweep of his arm, and Kagome didn't know if she was more tickled by the fact that they both went for angelic descriptors of each other, or by the fact that he referred to her as 'his'.

* * *

**A/N:** No idea what's going on here, don't care, lalala, moving on~


	5. A Thousand Words

**Summary: **It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but what is Sesshoumaru to do when his girlfriend of four years is keeping 1,000 words secret from him?

**Disclaimer:** Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi. I just write fanfics about them.

**Author's Notes: **

**NEW SCHEDULE: I'LL BE UPDATING EVERY _SATURDAY_ AND _WEDNESDAY_! :)**

Like I mentioned before, I have a lot of these backed up on my computer, and hopefully I can focus on editing my other fics while I tide you guys over with one-shots two times a week. So stay tuned for more!

Enjoy!

* * *

**A Thousand Words**

**888**

Sesshoumaru hadn't meant to see the picture.

He'd glimpsed it quite by accident when looking for their Sears Rewards card in his girlfriend's wallet, and had asked her who the little boy in the picture was.

Kagome, his girlfriend, rarely kept pictures of her past, and what few she had were carefully stowed away in a chest, in the basement of their little home. The only other pictures she had of the present could be counted on two hands – _maybe_ \- and Kagome was cautious to keep them safe at their house, in ornate frames and high places where they couldn't be knocked down by accident.

"Memories are precious and should be cared for." she had once said when Sesshoumaru had asked about this strange quirk.

It was so rare to see a picture so carelessly flaunted on a day-to-day wallet, when Kagome didn't even have a picture of _them_, that Sesshoumaru really couldn't help but be curious.

Kagome had tried to be casual about it, but the way she had swiped the picture back so quickly, and how she had tucked it into the wallet _oh so carefully_ spoke volumes to the white-haired man.

"He's nobody. Just someone that I used to know." Kagome had said, but the tone…there was too much _longing_, and the way that Kagome smiled while she gently slipped the wallet into her purse made Sesshoumaru _burn._

Sesshoumaru had opened his mouth to ask again, but at that moment the Sears sales-clerk interrupted them to continue their down-payment on the new fridge, and the subject had been dropped.

Dropped, but not forgotten, the man thought as he glanced at his girlfriend from the corner of his eye.

The dreamy smile was still there.

Sesshoumaru hadn't meant to see it.

_But he did. _

* * *

It wasn't fair of Sesshoumaru to be suspicious.

He understood that before him, there had been many other people in Kagome's life. The same could be said about him, and Sesshoumaru had his fair share of pictures and words that were private, and would forever _stay_ private, so it was expected that Kagome did as well.

The problem was he now _knew_ that Kagome had a secret past.

He had always assumed that his girlfriend - being the shy, naive girl that he was – had a far more innocent and less exciting past than his own, at least in the relationship department. They had of course talked about their past affairs, and Kagome had not failed to meet that presumption – she had had less than a handful of previous romantic relationships, and most had not passed the line of hand-holding and kissing – without tongue, no less! _Yawn._

The same could not be said for Sesshoumaru, who had been (and forever would be) a sexual deviant his entire life; but that was beside the point.

Kagome had never once mentioned the boy in the photo during the relationship exposé.

Alternately, Sesshoumaru had been 100% honest in that department. He had laid out all his dirty laundry- and there was _plenty_ of it, all his escapades and unsavory sleeping around - just so that Kagome could get to know him completely. That included the not-so-good parts of him. He had shown her pictures of all his past lovers, because Kagome had asked to see them and Sesshoumaru had willingly obliged. Kagome had done the same, although as he had mentioned, there weren't that many pictures to go around. All in all, they had both been pretty open about the subject. Or so Sesshoumaru thought.

Seeing that picture meant that Kagome had lied, even if by omission. She had kept something from him, and even though it was only a picture, she was hiding it because she knew it meant something.

That after all these years, it still meant _something. _

And it was _something_ that she felt guilty about sharing with her boyfriend of four years.

_That_ in Sesshoumaru's mind set off alarm bells, and he was trying desperately to keep his cool and not tie Kagome up and keep her trapped until she fessed up. After all, everybody was entitled at least two or three secrets. It was only normal.

It wasn't fair of Sesshoumaru to be suspicious.

_But he was_.

* * *

It felt like dying.

It may sound dramatic, but Sesshoumaru had almost died once, so he knew first-hand how that experience felt.

When he was a young boy, he had been shot by a stray bullet during a New Year's Eve celebration. The bullet had pierced his torso and lodged itself in a rib. He had never seen his parents cry so hard; they thought this would be the last New Year's they would have with their only child.

And Sesshoumaru? He had never been in so much fucking pain. The air was barely choked out of his lungs, even though he could hear said organs rattling inside his chest as he drew one long, shaky breath after another. His whole side _burned_ and _ached_ and Sesshoumaru had just wanted somebody to end, end, _end _his misery and be done with it. But then he had been taken into surgery and when he had woken up, the burning was subdued and he could finally breathe again.

But the ghost of the pain still lingered, and each time Sesshoumaru glimpsed the scar off a mirror or his lover grazed it during love-making, Sesshoumaru would remember that agony and shiver.

There was no mirror this time, and his lover was unfortunately not sexing him up, but Sesshoumaru was suddenly reminded of that scary moment in his life.

Now though, that memory paled against an even more terrifying thought:

Kagome was cheating on him.

He was being stupid, he knew, but once the thought had flickered across his mind, unbidden, Sesshoumaru couldn't _fucking_ un-think it. Kagome was cheating on him…

…with the boy in the picture.

Sesshoumaru realized how insane and ridiculous that sounded. Not only was it physically impossible, he wasn't a complete moron, it was also impossible time-wise. The boy in the picture was wearing outdated clothes, and the wearing and yellowing on the edges of the photo suggested that many years had gone by since it had been taken. The chances of Kagome meeting up with the mysterious youngster today in the present were very slim (though with the advent of social networks and the Internet, not slim enough for Sesshoumaru).

No, what Sesshoumaru meant was _emotional cheating_.

He knew, for a fact, that Kagome thought of this boy daily. It was impossible not to, when she kept a picture of him handy at all times in her wallet, so she had to glimpse him at least once a day. And so at least once a day, Kagome would smile that infuriating way she did in Sears, and remember him with endearment and _longing_ in her eyes.

And at least once a day, she would trace those flat, blurred features with her beautiful fingers, and try to imagine what the boy would look like now, and if he was still as handsome as he was in the photograph, or even more good-looking.

_And at least_, once a day, she would look into herself, into her life these past few years, and wonder-

_What if?_

What if the boy still thought of Kagome like she did of him? What if they were still _together_? What if they had gone to the same college, where Kagome never would have met Sesshoumaru? What if Kagome_ and the boy_ had moved in together, instead of with Sesshoumaru? What if _he_ had been her first? What if they were to grow old together…?

What if they still _loved_ each other?

Sesshoumaru's head reeled, and his throat constricted.

Was cheating physically better or worse than cheating emotionally? Could they even be kept apart?

Is hearing "The kiss, the sex, it meant nothing, just a moment of weakness" worse than "we had feelings for each other but we didn't actually do anything"?

Cheating physically means that having _sex, _that thing you do only with the one you love, means absolutely _nothing_. That includes sex with the person you supposedly love and care about, that person that is your partner but is, according to you, physically interchangeable with anybody else.

Cheating emotionally means that although you care for your partner, you still developed deep emotional attachments to another human being. Emotional attachments that _aren't_ supposed to exist unless you aren't _satisfied_ with the person you supposedly love.

Kagome still had, be it consciously or not, deep feelings for that boy. But the question was, how deep?

He tried to think of a word that better encompassed this typhoon of emotions that assaulted him, but in the end, Sesshoumaru could only come up with one:

_It felt like dying_.

* * *

Sesshoumaru needed to stop thinking of him as 'the boy'.

The noun suggested something juvenile and sweet, innocent and pure. Yet when Sesshoumaru caught a second glimpse of the photo (this time in Kagome's tin card-holder, where she kept all her business cards; apparently she had switched her 'hiding place' from Sesshoumaru's prying eyes, without success.), the man had to admit, he really wasn't that young.

The photo was slightly fuzzy and worn, but the boy's face was as clear as the day the picture had been taken.

It was a candid shot, Sesshoumaru could tell, with the blurry limbs and odd angle giving it away. The youngling's face was open, free; and his wide, dimpled grin and crinkled eyes gave evidence that it had not been posed or staged - it was completely natural. He wore his thick, white hair loose, bangs falling messily over amber eyes, curling slightly around the ears.

There was a streak of blue across his cheek and some yellow splattering his red kimono. He had been turning around for the shot, as if he had been called, and he had the wonderfully exhausted look that boys tended to have after a long day of play.

There was that word again.

'Boy'.

The name implied childishness and could be applied to a ten-year old, but the person in the picture was at least sixteen years old. Perhaps he had looked so young to Sesshoumaru because he himself was so much older (funny how age can do that to you.) To his 27-year old eyes, sixteen was indeed a child, but not by much.

Sesshoumaru called him boy, but in truth, he was a young man, almost an adult. He just looked so _young_. So carefree and happy, and whenever Sesshoumaru wondered if Kagome had been the one to take the shot, if the teen had directed his dimpled smile at _her_, and just _what_ had his beloved said to cause such a gleeful reaction, Sesshoumaru's heart _ached._

He needed to stop thinking of him as 'the boy'.

After all, he was his rival.

* * *

A/N: This has been sitting on my computer since 2013 T_T I'm not sure where I was going with this, really. It's been so long. I rarely see fics where Sesshoumaru gets jealous (obsessive, even) over Kagome in a way that is relatable and not an over-the-top stunt that's meant as a joke. So this was a great exercise to try and get into his brain and expand on what jealousy could look like with him without making him a caricature, but rather a person who - like all of us - broods and agonizes in silence over little things. (Not dissing any interpretation of possesive-jealous Sessy btw. I enjoy those just as much as anybody. Just appreciate variety too).

This short could be taken slight canon, with Kagome keeping memories of her time-traveling past secret, and ends up dating Sesshoumaru's reincarnation in the future. Maybe? I left out all of Sesshoumaru's physical characteristics for that very reason alone, so you could decide for yourself if he was human or demon. Let me know what you think! Your comments, whatever they may be, always brighten up my day!:)

Ange Question Time!: Do you guys prefer my Modern AUs or would you rather I write more canon Segoku Jidai SessKag fics? Would love to hear from you!


	6. Thunder & Metal

**Summary: **Secret magic-wielder Kagome Higurashi meets her next door neighbor for the first time; a yellow-eyed man who smells like electricity and danger.

**Disclaimer:** Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi. I just write fanfiction about it.

**Author's Notes: **I originally wrote this inspired by cyberpunk series like _Tokyo Crazy Paradise_ and _Akira_. Think a grungy, dirty future where technology blends perfectly with magic, and demons and humans coexists (rather begrudgingly).

ALSO: Please check out "lovemaykillyou"'s most recent story "Falling Star Dancers"! Its a continuation of my latest chapter in "Teacher (With Benefits), and its SO GOOD (despite this being her first fic on the site!) I love collaborating with other crazed IY fans. So please R&R her work if you can, so she can make more awesome stuff :)

ok, now enjoy!

* * *

**Thunder & Metal**

**888**

He smelled like electricity.

That was the only word Kagome Higurashi could possibly think of to describe her next-door neighbor. It wasn't like the comforting scent of rainy days and warm heating-blankets behind closed doors; neither was it the clean smell of the ocean just as a thunderstorm rolled in from the horizon.

No, it was more like the sinister spark of a power-line before exploding and plunging all of the surrounding buildings into an unexpected black-out; like the pungent, thick smell that came off a burning tree after being struck by lightning, the small echoes of static only giving the illusion of life inside the charcoaled husk of the trunk. The smell surrounded the man like a miasma, stifling and eerie and impossible for the raven to ignore. The first time she caught whiff of the acrid scent was also the first time they met.

Kagome watched from her periphery as the man searched inside the pocket of his over-sized, white bomber jacket for the keys to his flat. They had coincidentally gotten home at the same time, as luck would have it, their doors only a handful of feet away from each other. Kagome searched for her own keys inside her bag with one hand, while the other covered her nose surreptitiously from the smell, her eyes watering at the edges like she had looked directly into a streak of light.

Her action did not go unnoticed by the stranger.

Yellow eyes, just as electric as the smell he emanated from his very pores, glanced into her own guilty blue ones. Kagome dropped her hand from her nose quickly and sniffed furtively, not wanting his first impression of her to be one of rudeness. But before she could introduce herself, the man spoke:

"The lock on that door does not work."

Kagome blinked away the wetness in her eyes, not sure if she was more startled by his bold statement or by the fact that even his voice sounded like thunder, all rumble and heat.

"How could you _possibly_ know that?" Kagome asked carefully, vainly fighting away suspicion and failing miserably. She wasn't one to judge others based on appearances, but the taller man harbored all the indicators of 'hardened criminal' if Kagome ever saw one. He was fit, but not in an athletic, gym-rat way; rather in the way one grew muscles from being involved in turf wars and street fights. _Several _of them. His long white hair was pulled back messily into a braid, revealing several face tattoos – two fuchsia stripes on each side of the face running parallel to his eyes, and a half moon smack in the middle of his forehead – that matched the tattoos on his exposed forearms. He might've been handsome, beautiful even, had the thunderous line of his furrowed brow not cast his face in a scowl that had Kagome searching for her keys with more urgency.

At her question though, the man smiled cryptically, the barest hint of a fang revealed, and Kagome's breath caught.

"Change the lock, little girl. Lest rats and other creatures slither in during the night." And with that obscure warning, he disappeared into the inside of his living quarters, leaving behind a breathless Kagome to stare at his wake. Fighting the dizzying rush of fear pulsing through her limbs, she thrust the door open – he was right, the lock was decorative – and rushed inside, slamming it shut behind her, the only barrier between her and the outside world which suddenly seemed scarier than it had a mere minute ago.

Kagome leaned against the closed door, trying to steady her breath. Belatedly, she realized that renting on the 'scarier side of town' also meant coexisting with its charming inhabitants, like her hooligan neighbor for example. She made a mental note to buy new locks the moment she got off work from the hospital tomorrow, and reaching for the nearest piece of furniture – a small dresser – blocked the door with it from the inside.

* * *

The young man lying limply in the gurney looked to be around her age, although with demons you could never be sure. He could be 24 or 240 years old, for all she knew. Kagome was brought back to the urgency of the moment by his violent coughing, the action causing his body to convulse and blood gush out of the wounds of his mangled legs.

His blue eyes, glazed an almost ice-white from the heavy medication, locked into hers. And beyond the fog of agony and morphine they seemed to say:

_'Don't let me die.'_

Solemly, Kagome nodded back. The man's eyes slipped closed again, as he fought for consciousness.

Taking a calming breath, Kagome moved to the end of the stretcher, all clinical professionalism as she assessed the damage to his injured limbs.

Upon closer inspection and despite the alarming amount of blood soaking his clothes and bed-sheets, the wounds weren't life-threatening. None of the main arteries had been punctured and, even now as she looked at it, the skin around the edges of the lesion was beginning to heal itself with demonic magic. Or was it?

Kagome frowned. The other nurse had told her that when he had been brought in, the demon had been bleeding for hours. Surely an injury as large but superficial as this one should've fixed itself by now. It wasn't uncommon for demons to come to the hospital, especially low-level ones. But even in his weakened state, Kagome could sense the immense youki of the man before her emanating in silver waves. A demon as powerful as he should've been up and running, or at least conscious. The fact that he was neither and had been taken to a hospital instead, was rare enough to give the woman pause and reassess the situation.

Something was wrong...something that mere medicine and demon-healing couldn't fix.

Kagome leaned closer and, gritting her teeth, focused her _other_ sense.

Small mental fingers flexed, stiff and contrived from lack of use. They stretched forth and probed the area around the leg experimentally, searching for that which mere mortal eyes could not see. But Kagome was no mere mortal, and soon the little healer found exactly what she was looking for.

She gasped, her mind and powers recoiling.

Dark blue miasma, almost black in it's thickness, appeared around the bloodied opening of the injury, putting resistance against her holy powers and blocking the demon's own magic from doing it's healing job. Somehow, and Kagome wasn't sure how, the demon before her had been poisoned with dark energy.

Kagome bit her lip, mental fingers retreating back to her, the blue miasma oozing and spreading freely the moment her holy pressure had receded.

This was going to be trickier than she thought.

Truthfully, Kagome didn't have much experience with purifying. She had exorcised some dark energies here and there, sometimes malignant spirits that latched unto objects or in worse cases humans. But that was completely different from what was happening right now.

This boy, whoever he was, had come into contact with evil - _real_ evil. In one of her many lessons, her grandfather had taught her that this kind of ancient malevolence left wounds - beyond the physical ones - and those wounds could get infected just as easily. Now the spiritual toxin was running wild, overpowering the man's own demonic aura and slowly eating away at his strength, his lifeforce.

If she had caught the poison in time, healing it would have been an easy matter to take care of right then and there. But it had been left unattended for too long, and the amount of power she would need to use required some privacy from probing eyes.

Scanning the area covertly, Kagome noted that the government agents usually posted at the entrance of the ER were gone, and a quick look at the wall-clock explained why: change of shift. Kagome almost cried at her good fortune. If she was going to do anything, now was the time.

But she couldn't move the patient without drawing attention to herself. All she could hope for was that the rest of the staff was as preoccupied with their own patients as she was. Over the intercom, a monotone voice declared a code. The innocuous sequence of words meant nothing to civilians, but medically-experienced Kagome understood immediately: car crash, multiple injured, all personnel on deck. That would certainly keep them busy.

It was like the stars were aligning themselves. This guy was one lucky sonnuvabitch.

Kagome grabbed the thick, white curtains and pulled them around the gurney, completely obscuring their little corner of the room from view. It wasn't a perfect enclosure, but it would have to do.

The young doctor leaned over her patient again, gently pushing his wet bangs away from his forehead, slick with perspiration. The man groaned softly, pressing almost tenderly into the cool touch of her hand - he was burning up. Kagome needed to act fast.

"I'm going to help you." she whispered, unsure if the man was even lucid enough to understand her. "but you're going to have to trust me." Without waiting for his reply, she removed her hand from his face and moved down to the bottom of the gurney. Trembling hands positioned themselves firmly over each major laceration on each leg; the man hissed at the pressure, but did nothing else. Kagome shut her eyes tight and tried to retreat into her mind, pulling at something deep within her.

This required concentration. Too much juice, and she could accidentally purify the demon. Not enough, and the evil would continue spreading until he died. Neither scenario was good.

Around her, the chaos of the ER room eased to a gentle stop. All sounds disappeared, except for the tell-tale hum at the ends of her fingertips that let her know her powers were working. Kagome didn't have to open her eyes to know that her hands were shrouded in the soft lilac energy that was her own specific signature. The power built up, slowly at first, until she could feel the static of it raising her hair off her shoulders, shaking her hands with the force of it.

Breathing out, she released it.

* * *

"What's your name?" the demon murmured weakly, and Kagome found she rather liked his voice; rough and masculine and surprisingly human.

Throwing caution to the wind, she answered with the truth. "Kagome."

"Like the nursery rhyme?"

Kagome laughed, and the demon's lips curved upward slightly, revealing the hint of a dimple on each cheek.

"Yes, just like the nursery rhyme. I really have to get back to my other patients. But you take care now." Kagome gave a delicate squeeze to his tan hand, which had been holding on to hers like a lost child, and with one last smile exited through the curtains.

Light blue eyes watched her leave, palm fisting as if hoping to capture and commit to memory the feeling of her hand inside his own.

"Kagome..." Kouga murmured thoughtfully.

* * *

She smelled like metal.

Not at first, though. During their initial meeting in the apartment hallway, Sesshoumaru had picked up on some floral fragrances emanating from her thin figure – artificial scents from her hygiene supplies, he guessed – and since the smell had not been particularly impressionable he had paid it no further mind. Many human females smelled similarly, after all, as they were all generally fond of scented bath products; something Sesshoumaru never did understand nor had any desire to. He had warned her about the door, taking sadistic pleasure in the sudden panic of her wide blue eyes, and promptly disappeared into his home with a little more pep in his step.

That had been the last time he had given any thought to the human girl next door. He figured that, by tomorrow, she would have vacated the building already and moved out to another part of town, hopefully one safer than this area. And with that, he had promptly forgotten all about her.

Until the following night when he heard her scream.

Something deep and primal and protective awakened inside Sesshoumaru, but he didn't take time to question it as he barreled out of his studio and bashed through her door. With a growl, he followed the sounds of a scuffle deep into the apartment and reached her room in time to see the girl sprawled on the floor with her hands raised protectively and the demon pounce. Even across the short distance of the doorway to the bed, Sesshoumaru immediately knew he would never make it in time.

(Later, Sesshoumaru would marvel at how lucky he was to be a second too late. Otherwise, he would have been caught in the blast.)

As she purified the demon before her, the room filling with the purple static of her priestess powers, the smell of metal was so pungent in the air Sesshoumaru nearly gagged.

If he was forced to find the words for it, it was like the overwhelming earthy scent of a mineral cave, full of native rock and steel; or the raw smell of a blacksmith's station, the exact moment the hammer clashed against alloy to shape it, white hot and powerful.

It was a metal aroma that spoke of _life_, a scent so far removed from Sesshoumarus's own lifestyle that it_ frightened_ him.

And then the light disappeared back into her small, childlike hands, taking with it the sparkling scent of metal and leaving behind a frightened girl in it's wake-

-and a dead high-rank demon.

Sesshoumaru really should've stayed in bed.

* * *

"We have to leave, _now._" he thundered. Sesshoumaru's voice made it clear that this wasn't either a request or an order; it was a threat.

Kagome shook her head, hoping that if she did it hard enough it would make this nightmare disappear like a bad memory. "I can't. All of my things are here - and my job-"

A hand appeared before her. Kagome looked up into the round, amber eyes of the half-demon Inuyasha. He was scowling, but behind the determined facade Kagome could detect a subtle kindness in the shape of his face, in the gentle glint of his eyes.

"We can protect you." Inuyasha offered chivalrously, acknowledging that after the night's events, the girl must be terrified beyond belief of the dangers that surrounded her. Magic powers aside, she was only a weak female human, after all.

Sesshoumaru was not so easily fooled. He watched the trembling girl take Inuyasha's hand with trepidation, the phantom echoes of her purifying magic scratching the edges of his skull in remembrance.

Sesshoumaru's hand fisted, enough to draw blood, as his half-brother placed a too-familiar claw around Kagome's waist, and he let out a quiet growl.

No, he wasn't fooled. Kagome was the truly dangerous one here, and nobody else suspected it.

* * *

**MORE BACKSTORY! Yay!:**

Criminal activity has surpassed manageable levels in Japan, and the government is corrupt with greedy humans and high-powered demon lords (not that the underworld is off any better, with mafia wars among the different surviving youkai clans being the norm). Kagome, an unregistered magic-wielder, flies low under the radar of the government by using her healing abilities to help others in the ER where she works as an intern doctor. The government has officially turned a blind eye to this demon take-over. Unofficially though, any human possessing magical powers (read: purifying abilities) is scouted from early birth and offered high-position jobs in the military or political programs. Many of these "gifted" individuals are snatched against their will. The plan is to form a large enough army to destroy all the demons in the land.

Kagome's abilities were miraculously kept secret by her family. Her mother, who has passed away by this time, made her swear that she would never use her powers for evil, only to bring humans and demons together. She taught her how to purify and heal, and these are two abilities that Kagome puts into use often working as an ER doctor - covertly, of course, lest she be "scouted" by an agent and forced to use her powers doing God knows what. Kagome moves into a dingy apartment complex. Her next-door neighbor is handsome, dangerous and smells like thunderstorms. Sesshoumaru looks like a rich-kid turned underworld boss, and frightens the living daylights out of the poor girl.

One day, she is seen using her powers by healing a bloodied demon in the ER. That night under the cover of thunder, a youkai sneaks into her apartment and tries to kidnap her. She begins screaming and fighting back. Sesshoumaru bursts into the apartment to help her, when Kagome stops the attacker with a blast of pure magic.

Realizing the advantages of having a priestess on their side and offering to protect her in exchange, the Moon Clan (Led by Inutaisho and his two sons) takes Kagome under their wing, to the underground world of demons.

The demon she had healed in the ER ends up being Kouga, leader of the Shoro (Wolf) clan. More than an asset, Kouga wants Kagome by his side as a wife. If that means the wolves must declare war upon the rulers the moon, then so be it.

But the fight for the priestess isn't limited to canines. For along came a spider...


	7. Wild Wild Sengoku

**Summary: **Cowgirl Kagome just wants to catch the next bounty, not feelings. But she's finding it incredibly difficult with such a handsome partner.

**Disclaimer: **Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi. I just write fanfic.

**Author's Notes:** I don't know if a Western AU has ever been tried with this fandom before (probably) but I could not get the idea of outlaws Sess and Kagome, going through the west collecting bounty and running away from authorities, out of my head. There's something awfully romantic and fun about the era and I think these two would certainly capture it.

* * *

**Wild Wild Segoku**

**888**

Some people wondered what made Sesshoumaru such a heartless bastard. Kagome never wondered. All it took was a glance at his missing arm, and with a pang of guilt she remembered exactly why he had become the man who he was.

And while Sesshoumaru was not blessed with happy manners, he was quick with numbers at the blackjack table and had a talent with a rifle to best any gunslinger in this part of the world; and really, that was even better.

* * *

"I will allow you to play with my hair…"he rumbled, his breath tickling the sensitive shell of her ear as he leaned down to her, "if I may play with yours."

Kagome smiled sardonically at her yellow-eyed partner, using every ounce of her inner strength to push down the butterflies and the blush that threatened to creep up her chest.

"Maybe we can braid each other's hairs and talk about cute cowboys later, Sess. Right now, we got a bounty to collect."

Sesshomaru arched an eyebrow, his disguised way of smiling. "You are positively infuriating." he murmured.

"If by that you mean "not easy", you got it partner. If you're looking for some nighttime entertainment, I'm sure those gentlemen at the bar would love it if you played with _their_ hair."

Sesshoumaru snorted, not at all offended by her easy banter. They had known each other well enough where this sort of conversation was certainly the norm by now.

"One of these days, Kagome, you will tell me what's really going on in that little head of yours. Or Lord help me, I shall have to force myself in there."

_Heaven forbid_, Kagome thought, shrinking at the thought of what would happen if Sesshoumaru could really read her mind. He'd have a couple of things to say about why Kagome thought about him shirtless as often as she did, among other more embarrassing things involving his hair and her naked thighs.

"Good luck." she winked at him instead, turning around and heading outside when she could no longer keep her blush at bay. "I'll get the horses ready while you pay our tab. Meet you outside." She pushed past the swinging bar doors without waiting for his reply and let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

The cool breeze of the evening desert did well to clear her thoughts. It would do neither of them good if she let her emotions be swayed when they had a job to do. There was no time to fall in love in the Wild West, after all.

* * *

"Your stubble is starting to show." Kagome whispered, running a careful hand over the man's chiseled jaw. The short hairs, white like the snow-colored hair on his head, pricked against the hyper-sensitive skin of her fingers.

Sesshoumaru didn't move, his eyes bright and heated as they looked at his partner's flushed face.

"Not a lot of barbers in the middle of the desert, unfortunately." he joked instead, trying to ease the tension between them, but finding it increasingly difficult to do so with her hand tracing delicate patterns on his face with such maddening intensity.

"Hm." Kagome replied distractedly, languidly moving her hands from the sides of his face to cup his chin. One adventurous thumb traced the delicate slope between his nose and lips, where the tell-tale shadow of a mustache was beginning to appear.

Instinctively, Sesshoumaru's tongue flicked out to wet his suddenly-dry lips, accidentally catching Kagome's thumb.

Both their breaths hitched.

The night was unbearably quiet and no one dared move, let alone breathe.

Sesshoumaru wasn't sure when, but sometime during Kagome's exploration of his face they had drawn closer, well past the comfortable barrier of friendship and into the dangerous territory of intimacy. It was like a veil had been lifted, and Sesshoumaru were seeing Kagome for the first time, her figure beautifully illuminated by the bonfire keeping them warm.

Sesshoumaru didn't have many personal rules - only two, really - but those he had were enforced with military strictness. And rule number one was: _never desire anybody_. Don't get him wrong; Sesshoumaru was by no means a celibate priest. He was allowed to lust over women, and Heaven knew he had had his fair share of affairs and sexual trysts in every town they stopped by. But carnal desires aside, he had never longed for a woman in that painful way that stripped a man of all reason, that rendered him helpless and weak. Desire led to love, and love was distracting. Out here in the west, a distracted cowboy was a dead one.

Which led him to rule number two: _never desire Kagome_.

It followed the same principles as rule number one, except for the stark difference that Sesshoumaru had never laid his hands on the raven. From the moment they had began travelling together, he had sworn to himself that this could only be a purely platonic relationship. Lately he had permitted teasing to transpire between them; but what's a little bit of flirting between friends? Nothing really. One could say that it equated to a more complex way of joking, a form of amusement, and Kagome was only that to him really; someone to entertain him during his long, long journey.

It just so happened that he fancied her more than his usual lovers, and it didn't hurt that she was the prettiest and most quick-witted woman he had ever met. But, really, that was _it._

Until that very moment, Sesshoumaru had never allowed himself to think about her in _that_ way - the kind of way that kept men up at night, restless with arousal - much less linger long on any faintly provocative thoughts. But the woman before him now was lovely and strong and soft and_ right in front of him,_ and Sesshoumaru need only lean forward-

Abruptly, the raven got up, startling the cowboy from whatever spell had been cast. Blinking rapidly, he watched her saunter to the opposite side of their campsite - the sway of her hips hypnotic - and lower herself to her sleeping cot. Turning her back to him, she pulled the blanket up to her chin, and stilled.

"Goodnight, Sesshoumaru." She said, her voice suspiciously devoid of any emotion.

Sesshoumaru brushed a weary hand across his temple, pausing over his shut eyes and pressing hard until white spots appeared behind the closed darkness of his lids.

"Goodnight, Kagome." he whispered, voice uncharacteristically rough.

If he pressed hard enough, maybe the phantom image of her lips so close to his own would disappear from his mind's eye too.

* * *

**A/N:** Again, another fun AU where I wouldn't even know what kind of story these situations could be written around. Any excuse for me to write sexual tension, though, ohoho~

Also, I think this is the first fic where my Sesshoumaru is cannonically missing his arm. A little bit of backstory: In this universe, he lost it back when he was a young deputy-in-training, saving a girl from a band of outlaws. It ruined any chances he had of becoming sheriff, although a life on the road suits him just fine too. Little did he know that girl he saved all those year ago would dedicate her entire life to pay him back, as his partner-in-crime and potential lover.


	8. Obvious Similarities

**Summary:** Admiration of opposites not-so-opposites.

**Disclaimer:** Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual propeprty of Rumiko Takahashi.

* * *

**Similarities so obvious we didn't notice**

**888**

They admire in each other what they think they lack in themselves.

She admires his strength. He admires her gentleness.

She, his ruthless nature; him, her compassionate heart.

His wisdom; her innocence. His power; her vulnerability.

His eternity; her mortality.

His love.

Her love.

* * *

A/N: Simple and sweet. Just like this ship. *heart*


	9. Priorities

**Prompt: **book lover

**Disclaimer: Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi.**

**Author's notes: **Just a simple writing exercise not to be taken too seriously. Enjoy. Sengoku Jidai-ish.

* * *

**Priorities**

**888**

Sesshoumaru had recently noticed just how worryingly thin Kagome was.

It didn't help that she barely ever ate. It wasn't for any lack of love for eating; Sesshoumaru had seen her devour a table-full of food with perverse fervor, and stick around for dessert (maybe two!). And it wasn't for lack of money either; she had enough in her bank account to take out their entire demon-killing entourage to the priciest restaurants in town and not even feel the hit to her savings.

No, the problem was the girl had her priorities _all wrong._

She would much rather spend her money on _books_ than on nourishment. He had seen her waver, stomach growling, on whether her last bills of the day would be better spent on a hot meal or on a great book sale. Her love for all things literature was downright obscene.

Beside him, Kagome picked up a book; the cover's hard, leather-bound binder comforting to the touch. Carefully propping it open in her stretched out palm, she tenderly rubbed her cheek against the thin pages and inhaled. They were dry and yellowy, with the faint smell of dust and knowledge, and Kagome smiled. She was home.

"I'll take it!" Kagome announced to the salesperson, her blue eyes dancing. Sesshoumaru started to object - she should really eat an apple from the booth a few tables down - when she suddenly turned those bright blue eyes on him, her smile radiant. His breath hitched at the sight, but Kagome was already speaking, unaware of the effect she had on the taiyoukai.

"Let's go back to the hut, Sesshoumaru! I've been dying to get my hands on this book, and we can cuddle under the blankets while I read it out loud to you!"

Sesshoumaru found his lips quirking upward, despite himself.

Well...maybe her priorities weren't _all_ wrong.


	10. Inner Workings of Minds

**Prompt:** I know not the inner workings of his mind.

**Disclaimer:** Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi.

**Author's Notes:** The one where Sesshoumaru is mildly annoying and Kagome can't wrap her head around why she likes that. Maybe canon?

* * *

**Minds**

**888**

I know not the inner workings of his mind, only the consequences it creates through his actions.

I see no reason why he smiles when I get upset at something he says, why my anger amuses him so when it makes others cower and flee.

Or why he barges into my chamber room while I'm studying to chat, when he has previously expressed to others that he wishes to be left alone and undisturbed.

I don't know why he says that I make him so angry he could punch a wall, even while he cradles me gently in his arms like a child.

And I don't understand why when I say I hate him, he answers with a kiss.

All these inexplicable actions are beyond my comprehension. I know not the inner workings of his mind, after all, only the consequences they create.

The most confusing consequence of all being the rapid beating of my heart and the ache when he is not there.

* * *

bad drabble is bad. moving on.


	11. Winter and Summer Solstice

**Summary:** The future Summer Queen must accept the Winter King's strange request, if they are to achieve any peace between their kingdoms.

**Disclaimer:** Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi. I only write Fanfic about it.

**Author's Notes:** I love me some fairy drama. I wrote this around the same time I finished reading Melissa Marr's "Wicked Lovely" book (which btw, I highly recommend!) back in 2012 I wanna say? I simply adored the complex politics around the fae folk and how they weaved a dark romance around two very star-crossed characters. Also, Sesshoumaru as the Winter King and Kagome as the Summer Queen (or Princess here, as it be) was too wonderful to pass up.

I hope you enjoy! As always, I appreciate your R&R!

* * *

**Midwinter Night's Dream**

**888**

"Are you here to kill me?"

Kagome, Princess of the Summer Court, Mistress of Tree and Flame, and ruler of Fär Elphame, asked the darkness quietly as she burned delicate little circles with her finger on the wooden railing overlooking the Summerlands.

Wire-thin vines bloomed over the lines her finger had traced, an intricate and beautiful weaving of natural flora urged gently into growth by the maiden's magic. It was with this mindless task that she masked the sheer, metallic fear of having the Winter King of Tôr Hivern inside her private bed chambers. How he had managed to infiltrate the castle and get past her guards was beyond her; but there he was now, a veritable statue of ice in the shadows of her room.

The Winter King scoffed, icy yellow eyes never moving away from her slim figure. The night had cast her dark hair in a lovely blue hue, her pale skin drinking in the moonlight, practically glowing. Sesshoumaru had often heard, be it from travelers or even members of his own court of faeries, that the Summer Princess was an exquisitely lovely creature.

Of course, he knew that already from the multiple times he had spied on her in secret.

"Kill you?" He rebutted her question with one of his own, cautiously stepping out of the shadows."Is that what you truly believe?"

"Well, why else would the great Lord Sesshoumaru sneak into my balcony in the middle of the night if not to assassinate_ me_, his most prominent political adversary?" Kagome responded, strangely calm despite the gravity of the situation. "I highly doubt it was only to see me in my _nightdress_."

Sesshoumaru did laugh then, causing her to flinch; but this time Kagome noticed the sound was less malicious, more light. "I will admit that seeing you in this fashion is certainly a bonus..." he confessed shamelessly, approaching her slowly from behind. Kagome turned to him with a raised brow. He lifted his shoulder, shrugging elegantly at her astonished stare. "I am only flesh and blood, my lady, despite what the rumours say about me."

"Is the fact that you killed my betrothed also a rumour?" Kagome whispered, and Sesshoumaru froze in his steps. For the first time that night, the Summer Princess held heat in her voice.

"No. It is not." Sesshoumaru answered quietly; there was neither pleasure nor regret in his tone.

Kagome's fist clenched and she shut her eyes, willing the growing wave of anger away.

"Thank you for your honesty."

"I see no reason to lie to you, Kagome." he said softly.

Her eyes snapped open again and Sesshoumaru could see literal flames burning behind those sky-blue eyes of her.

_Ah. There she is_, he thought with something akin to admiration.

"That is _Princess_ Kagome to you, ice demon."

With a smile, she could ripen a crop, and with a frown, summon wildfires. Once she became Queen and had untapped access all of her mystic powers, the Lady of the East would become unstoppable.

That is, if she lived long enough.

For now, Kagome was all bravado and no bite, her powers shackled under the inferior and burdensome title of princess.

"If you are here to kill me, then _please_ be done with it. But I warn you, devil, that you will not get the satisfaction of hearing me _beg_. I will throw myself off this balcony before I cry at your feet."

Sesshoumaru tilted his head to the side thoughtfully, seeming to consider the furious woman through half-lidded lashes. "My dear, if I truly had any intention of ending your life, I could have done it ages ago." Sesshoumaru resumed his steps, one cautious foot over the other, gauging the tension. "But you already knew that."

Kagome watched him like a hawk as he very slowly, but deliberately, walked the periphery around her, until he was only a handful of feet away from her, standing opposite on the small balcony. He rested both hands on the railing; a move that could have been interpreted as casual had it not been so clearly broadcasting something else:

_'I am not armed.'_

Still, a demon needed no physical weapons if he really wished to hurt someone.

"What do you want?" It took all of Kagome's civility not to spit the words at him.

"Hopefully the same thing as you, princess."

Leaning against the balcony, Sesshoumaru let out a sigh, and he sounded so ancient and tired that Kagome feared he would crumble, like melting ice caps, right before her eyes.

"I am _weary_ of war." he muttered at last into the night.

Kagome barely dared to breathe at the mere thought of what the man could possibly be suggesting. But she would be foolish to blindly trust a winter nymph; there had to be a catch.

"Are you implying I should meekly surrender, and let you claim my kingdom and ravage my people while you mount my head on _pike_?"

The princess winced as Sesshoumaru lifted his hands from the railing, expecting a rebuff; but he merely dropped his face into his palms, cradling his head in them.

"No." he said, the slightest edge of a groan bowing his shoulders into himself, and Kagome really didn't know what to make of this strange display of vulnerability. Was he trying to deceive her, like black ice on a road that you could not see until it was too late? "We can end it, you and I, _everything_. No more suffering, no more death-"

"How dare you speak so lightly of death when it was you who murdered my future husband?" she accused with a hiss, the memory of Duke Koga's death and that of others in her court still fresh in her mind.

"I have lost loved ones too." he said quietly, and Kagome sucked in a breath. Quickly she looked away, ashamed as she realized her mistake.

She had heard about the little human child that the Winter King had taken under his care; a mortal girl made up of daisies and sunlight. Had heard about how, while Lord Sesshoumaru was away on business, Duke Koga had stormed the halls of Tôr Hivern with his pack and done unspeakable things to anybody unlucky enough to come across his path. Nobody was spared, not even civilians.

And the little girl's blood had been used to paint the entrance of the gates, to greet Sesshoumaru when he returned.

Kagome shut her eyes tight. Truth be told, she had harbored no real love for her betrothed from the start of their union; and upon hearing of the attack on Tôr Hivern, held even less. Duke Koga was a valuable ally to Fär Elphame and a fearless leader; but he was also a chauvinistic brute, and their marriage had been one of duty and convenience only, not romance. He was young and loyal to her, and she was in need of a husband to ascend the throne, as her 18th birthday was still a full spring away.

That changeling child, Rin...she hadn't deserved that. Nobody did. It came as no surprise, or sorrow, when news reached her that Koga had been killed by the Winter King not a week later after the massacre at the Winterlands.

Taking a deep calming breath, Kagome willed the anger cursing through her body down, from a raging inferno to a gentle flame. With as much gentility as she could muster, telling herself that complying to him was a compromise and not a final forfeit, she uttered:

"What do you propose I do, my Lord?"

And then Sesshoumaru turned fully towards her, and his eyes looked so lost and broken and _sad_ that she staggered on the spot, her heart tightening painfully. Sesshoumaru _did_ want peace. This war was destroying him, just as much as it was destroying her, and if they could come up with a way to end it-

"Marry me, princess."

It was like a bucket of ice water had been thrown over her head and doused her fire.

"What?" she whispered weakly.

Sesshoumaru smiled softly, an almost sardonic look on his face.

* * *

**A/N:** I'm sad I never got to play around with this story more. But it really takes a lot of time to properly research fae folktales and the customs of the era (because despite this being fanfiction about two japanese characters in a parody of an English novel, I still aspire for accuracy in storytelling), so until I have more time to develop this as it properly deserves, it shall remain as is for now. Would you guys even want to continue reading a story like this? Let me know, R&R!

**BONUS NOTES:**

\- **Fär** = Gaelic for 'forest'.

\- **Elphame** = also known as _Elphyne_ or _Elfame_. Scottish name for the realm of the fae folk, "Fairyland"; _elp- _deriving from 'elf', -_hame _meaning 'home'. In classic lore, the land is always ruled by a Queen fairy.

\- **Tôr** = or _torr_, meaning hill or mountain in Gaelic.

\- **Hivern** = old English for 'winter'.

\- **Kagome's royal titles:** Princess of the Summer Court, Mistress of Tree and Flame, Ruler of Fär Elphame, Lady of the East, and Queen of all Faeries (once she ascends the throne).

\- **Sesshoumaru's royal titles:** The Winter King, Master of Moon and Shadow, Ruler of Tôr Hivern, Lord of the West, and (Kagome's favorite insult) The Ice Demon.

\- **changeling** = believed to be a fairy child that had been left in place of a human child stolen by the fairies. In this story, the little human's parents were gone (presumably killed, as it happened often in those times), and so she was received by the Winter King with open arms, much to the surprise of many. Her death was a terribly loss to the King, and the catalyst for him wanting to end the war.

\- Royals may only rise to the throne in one of two ways: 1) when they are of age, in human time that being on their 18th birthday. 2) by marriage, where they will be seen as a proper adult in the eyes of the court. Sesshoumaru is already in his late 20s here, so has already earned his crown. Kagome hasn't.

If Kagome were to marry, her betrothed - usually someone from her fae court - would hold no political power, as she would be the sole ruler of Fär Elphame. If they already have a title, they are allowed to keep it. If they are without title or no connections to royalty, they shall be appointed the titles of "Earl" or "Countess".

It is usually recommended that the Queen choose someone of political and economic value, such as a Count or Duke from her own group of allies, as this will strengthen The People's trust in her. But there have been many cases were Queens have taken wives or husbands of no notable social upbringing; some have even married humans (although continuous exposure to the fae and their magic quickly corrupts their humanity and they eventually become one of 'The People' too.)

\- I love Koga, but let's not sit here and pretend that he didn't kill Rin and her entire village the first time around in canon. Had he tried that while Rin was already traveling with Sesshoumaru during the anime/manga, Koga wouldn't have been allowed to breathe air for another day. #facts So...bye Duke Koga?

\- **Kagome's Royal Counsel** includes: _Lady Kaede_, head advisor and present regent until Kagome ascends; _Captain Sango_, military general and commander of the royal guard; _Duchess Kikyo_, white priestess and mystic advisor; _Baroness Souten_, political and international affairs; _Baron Shippo_, head of espionage.

\- **Sesshoumaru's Royal Counsel** includes: _Sir Myoga_, head advisor; _Prince Inuyasha_, second-in-command when the King is absent (only on the counsel so he'd shut the fuck up); Duke Miroku, religious advisor (or court jester, as Sesshoumaru likes to call him); _Countess Kagura_, head of espionage and royal messenger; _Count Naraku_, high sorcerer.


	12. Come away to the spirits of the night

**Prompt:** silver fur

**Disclaimer:** Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi. I just write fanfic about them.

**Author's notes:** Another short one I wrote on the bus almost a decade ago (2010!). A sort of Peter Pan-esque/Phantom of the Opera-ish take on our lovely couple.

* * *

**Come Away...**

**888**

On nights when the girl's sleep was so deep that he was sure she would not wake easily, Sesshoumaru would call upon his powers and enter her dreams.

(Contact between their kind was forbidden. But the taiyoukai was not one to follow rules and really it _pleased_ him so to see her, and Sesshoumaru enjoyed his pleasures for they were so few and far between.)

Once there in her dreamscape, he would drape her in his silver fur and spirit her away; past the tree tops and the rivers, past the mountains and the clouds, all the way to his palace on the moon.

And the woman-child - her mortal body still secure in the land of sleeping, but her spirit shining brightly next to him - would laugh like a million sparkling diamonds, dazzled by all the beauty that his world offered. A beauty which, he thought, paled when compared to hers.

Holding her childlike hand tight, Sesshoumaru would smile upon her lovingly, never letting go, enjoying what precious moments he could steal - _because that's all one could realistically have with a human, stolen moments, their lives were so short, too short_ \- and leaning down, he would whisper in her ear:

"Come away, to the spirits of the night."

* * *

A/N: Not much to say on this one. Didn't like it then, tried to fix it now, gave up. R&R is always appreciated!


	13. Don't hold the wall

**Prompt: **Dance Partner

**Disclaimer: **Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi. I just write fanfic about them.

**Author's Notes: **Back when I wrote this in 2011 I really enjoyed it, but now I think it's kinda meh lol.

* * *

**Don't Hold The Wall**

**888**

They met in _The Jewel._

Kagome glanced around the packed club with dread, trying to find her best friend. She had told her sister, Kikyo, that they should have met outside so as to prevent losing each other, but the beautiful raven had waved her off with a laugh.

Kagome leaned heavily against her dance partner, desperately gulping air as if she were drowning. Her mind was scattered, overwhelmed by the new sensations; by the heat humming in her veins, by the sweat trailing down her thighs, and by the sly fingers tracing small circles on her hipbone. Her brain, now melted into radioactive goo, was having a particularly hard time processing thoughts.

Her dance partner had no such qualms.

Leaning down suggestively, he nipped her ear, and smiled at her low moan. "This place is too hot and crowded. Let's go somewhere else…" he whispered huskily, and felt her shiver slightly.

A laugh escaped her, short and quick. She bowed her cheek against his broad shoulder, arms clinging to his chest, no longer able to stand on her own. Her heavy breath ghosted over his neck, and she closed her eyes, the music from the club thrumming pleasantly in the background.

"Okay…"she breathed.

Sesshoumaru's smile widened.


	14. Never Let Me Go

**Prompt:** City Of Angels AU (based on the movie with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan? Yeah, that one).

**Pairing:** TECHNICALLY SessKag, but bear with me.

**Disclaimer:** Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi. I just write fanfic about it.

**Author's notes:** I actually still really like this idea, born circa 2011 I think. It's cute and (if you're familiar with the movie) bittersweet. Mainly though, what really deterred me from continuing it was how OOC Sesshoumaru was. If I could go back and finish this (and I just might, though not any time soon), I would definitely revise the entire thing. For now, enjoy this for what it was meant to be: a meet-cute.

* * *

**Never Let Me Go**

I remember when I saw you for the first time  
You were laughing, sparkling like a new dime  
I came over, "Hello, can you be mine?"  
"Can you be mine? Can you be mine?"

\- Never Let Me Go, Lana Del Rey

888

Sesshoumaru enters the flower shop, anxiety and butterflies building up inside of him.

_Tling tling,_ goes the shop door-bell, announcing his presence to the lone store clerk behind the desk. Sesshoumaru's heart skips just by looking at her.

Kikyo looks up from the accounting book, and recognizing a first-time customer when she sees one, smiles brightly at him. Immediately, Sesshoumaru's palms feel damp.

"Good afternoon!" she calls sweetly, closing the book and retying the knot on her apron, all hospitable professionalism. "How may I help you, sir?"

Sesshoumaru hesitates, looking around the shop as if he's confused why he's there in the first place. Meanwhile, the pretty raven looks at him expectantly, polite smile still in place, but eyebrows drawn slightly in question.

_'Oh, no'_, Sesshoumaru groans internally. Too many awkward seconds where he hasn't said anything pass, and she starts to look at him strangely_. Say something "human"!_

"H-howdy!"

Nailed it.

Kikyo stifles a laugh at the nervous greeting, but nods at him, returning the greeting with good humor. "Howdy to you! Are you interested in buying a bouquet, a floral arrangement or a single flower? Or maybe a plant for your home?" Taking the conversational spotlight from him, she turns and begins to walk toward the back of the store, where they keep the bigger plants in pots.

Sesshoumaru follows stiffly, wracking his brain for what to say next.

"We just got a whopping new cargo of exotic, tropical leaf-babies that would_ really_ spice up any home." Kikyo suggests helpfully over her shoulder.

Sesshoumaru fidgets, all panic at this point. None of what she says makes any sense to him. He knows the words individually – Sesshoumaru studies the human language almost obsessively, something that his half-brother teases him for – but in such context he can make no sense of them. But one word does stick out, and for the sake of following the conversation, he replies to it.

"I do not have a home."

Kikyo stops in her tracks, and turns slowly toward him. "Oh…I'm sorry."

Belatedly, Sesshoumaru realizes how that sounds. _'Why did I say that? Fix it, fix it!'_

"What I mean is…I just arrived to this city. Yes, that's right. I haven't really settled in yet, so it's not really my home at this moment." This reasoning seems to satisfy the raven, who is no longer puckering her brows in worry, and smiles in understanding.

"I see!"

"Um…yes. Well, I'm not sure what kind of plant would look good, so…" he trails off, unsure of what to say. He has very limited experience in lying. Any more and he is sure to expose himself. "I apologize. I am not very good at this." he confesses, peeking at her over the fringe of his bangs, settling for half-truths.

But Kikyo takes the reins like a professional and comes swooping in.

"Of course. That's why I'm here to help you." She smiles sweetly again and Sesshoumaru's heart aches. "Well, for a small apartment I really recommend one of these –" she gently strokes one the leaves of the potted plants nearby. Sesshoumaru swears he can almost see the plant straighten a bit at the genial affection, seeking her out. These plants are certainly loved, he muses, feeling even greater tenderness towards the woman.

"- since they don't take up much space, but add just enough warmth and life to any room. And you could complement its beautiful colors with one of these simple vases. Now if you're moving to a bigger home, I would recommend-"

Sesshoumaru slowly tunes her out, her words not really meaning anything to him anyways, and is content with simply watching her. There is something about the way she talks and walks…that is incredibly…_fascinating_. The way she moves gracefully like a bird, how her eyes shine brightly whenever they gaze lovingly at one of the plants - her leaf-babies, as she calls them- in the store. Everything about her is inexplicably appealing. He wants-

"Sir?"

"Hm?" Sesshoumaru shakes his head lightly and tries to focus. She had asked him a question and he was totally spaced. Now she expects an answer. Sesshoumaru flounders slightly. "Forgive me, may you repeat what you just said?"

"Do you have any children?"

What. "What?" he asks aloud, just because thinking it is not enough to convey his shock.

Kikyo watches him carefully. "Do you have any kids in the house? Potted plants have a bit of a short lifespan when kids are around. They tend to knock things down accidentally - totally normal. My little sister did it all the time. So if there are any children in the household, you'd need something more sturdy and-"

"No!" Sesshoumaru shakes his hands and head fervently, his ears and neck blushing a bright red. "No, I do not have any offspring."

"Really? A wife? Or perhaps a girlfriend?"

Sesshoumaru's blush darkens even more. "Um, no…I…I am not…courting anybody…" _Yet_.

The pretty raven looks at him steadily, her bright blue eyes considering. Sesshoumaru fidgets some more. Then, abruptly, she smiles brighter than before. "Sorry! How rude of me! My name is Kikyo, by the way."

Her sparkling smile dazzles him for a moment, and Sesshoumaru replies breathlessly, "I know…"

Kikyo's eyebrows raise, smile faltering, and Sesshoumaru realizes that he made another mistake. "How did you…"

Sesshoumaru thinks quickly how to cover up his gaffe, and finds an answer in an instant.

"It is branded on your shirt." He points to the left side of her chest, in case she forgets where exactly.

Kikyo looks down surprised, as if seeing the embroidered name for the first time, and laughs nervously. "Oh, right! Of course, silly me! Well, nice to meet you misteeer…" she draws out his name expectantly. When Sesshoumaru doesn't reply, she laughs again. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

My name…? Demons have no use for such things. To our kind, we are all "brother" or "sister". Names are strictly for Gods and deities. And humans, who find the activity of naming so fascinating. Names are ridiculous.

And yet for her…

"My name…" he muses, blinking slowly. "My name is…" Sesshoumaru looks around the shop, floundering for something that seems believable. His eyes fall on a sunflower, and wistfully he remembers a distant time when a small human girl - who smelled like Sun and grass and all the good things that grew on this earth - had once given him a name.

"My name is… Sesshoumaru"

"'The Killing Perfection'? _That's_ your name?"

Feeling strangely embarrassed but sticking to his choice, Sesshoumaru nods solemnly. "Yes."

"Sesshoumaru, huh?" Kikyo tries it experimentally, rolling the name in her mouth and letting it linger. "It's sort of pretty, actually. Is it from an anime or something?"

Sesshoumaru is floored once more. What is 'anime'? "Umm…" he scowls at her curious eyes uncertainly, and fidgets with the hem of his jacket sleeve. _What should I say?_ He looks down, deciding what to answer next and to calm his nerves.

The awkward silence is broken by a bubbly chortle and Sesshoumaru snaps up to look at Kikyo covering her mouth, as giggle after giggle escapes her.

"I've never met anyone so shy!" she laughs.

Sesshoumaru blushes bright red once more, and looks down. She must think he's an idiot.

Her giggling dies and suddenly Sesshoumaru's vision is filled with a pair of slim, rosy fingers gently tugging at his own.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to tease you about it." After a few moments, Sesshoumaru tears his eyes away from the beautiful sight of their entwined hands and looks into impossibly-blue eyes. "It's actually very sweet, I think." She whispers, and squeezes their hands.

All too soon, she lets go, and turns once more toward the store. "Well then, _Sesshoumaru_, is there anything at all that grabs your fancy here. Any particular flower, perhaps, since the potted plants weren't exactly your thing?"

Sesshoumaru tears his eyes away and gazes unseeing through the store. Nothing has really managed to ensnare him. He has seen far more beautiful flowers in heaven's gardens. But a flash of yellow catches his eyes again, and he points at it.

Kikyo follows his gaze, and whistles wonderingly. "A sunflower man, huh? I would've pegged you for an orchid aficionado. Maybe a nice bonsai." She smiles at her joke, and although Sesshoumaru doesn't understand, he smiles back. She inspects all the blooms carefully, and after deigning one as the superior one, puts it in a vase and brings it to the register. Sesshoumaru rushes forward, wallet in hand.

"So, where are you going to put it?" Kikyo asks conversationally as she rings him up. Sesshoumaru notices that she seems to be in high-spirits, perhaps from speaking to him? Hoping he is reading the mood well, Sesshoumaru takes the plunge.

"I was hoping you would be able to recommend me a place...while we have dinner." he asks carefully, his yellow eyes looking up from the equally-yellow sunflower and into startled blue eyes.

* * *

Kikyo does say yes to their first date. And to the second date. And even the third. She says yes to so many of them that Sesshoumaru eventually loses count. (That is a lie. They went on exactly 54 dates, without counting the wonderful evenings he spent by her side in their home. Their _shared_ home, that always had freshly-watered plants and smelled of sunflowers.)

And if such sweet happiness is what awaits him as a human, then Sesshoumaru is okay with giving up his immortality.

So he does.

And for a while, Sesshoumaru can easily say that he is the happiest man on Earth.

Until date 55.

While Sesshoumaru is purchasing snacks at the gas station for their hike, nervously twirling a small, velvet box in his jacket pocket, a man walks up to the car where Kikyo is waiting. Gun in hand, he asks her for money. When Kikyo hesitates one second too long, he takes her life instead.

And just like that, with the sound of thunder and the smell of gunpowder, it was all over.

* * *

Sesshoumaru tries to keep the shop, _her_ shop, but sorrow has a way of rendering meaningless everything that once filled you with love.

He sells it to a young couple; a red-head boy with a face like a fox, and a girl with wit as quick as lightning. He wishes them the happiness that he once felt.

Unable to return to the world of demons and refusing to integrate into the one of humans, Sesshoumaru wanders aimlessly.

He doesn't know what exactly he's looking for. Or who. But something deep inside him urges him forward, through the endless abyss of his misery, whispering: _keep looking_.

So he does.

It is exactly seven years later at a San Francisco airport, drinking water from a fountain and about to make a connection to Australia, when Sesshoumaru sees her again.

His half-brother had once spoken of humans reincarnating, and though he scarcely believes it himself, he cannot deny what is right in front of him.

She is but a child, hair shorter and face round and pink like a cherub; yet Sesshoumaru is sure beyond the shadow of a doubt that it is his Kikyo. Her soul feels the same.

He is frozen by shock, unable to react at all as the little child gazes back with wide eyes, when a voice calls out. It is the child's mother, speaking fast. She grabs hold of his beloved and pulls her to a gate.

Snapping from his trance, Sesshoumaru races after them. He manages to see a glimpse of the child as, together with the mother, they board the plane. The fallen demon tries to go after them, but without a ticket they won't allow him access. Sesshoumaru can't afford to lose them, not now! He demands to know where the plane is headed.

Japan.

Sesshoumaru buys a ticket there and then.

As soon as he arrives in Japan, he devices a plan. Kikyo's reincarnation is still a child, and it would be very difficult to approach her again without suspicion from other adults. They would not understand - he could hardly understand it himself, after all, and having been a spiritual entity once he had seen his fair share of 'strange'. But if he can somehow find a position where he can be close to her and keep an eye of her...

It is then that Sesshoumaru decides to become a teacher. He could transfer to schools all around Japan, and meet a large amount of children until he can once again meet his beloved.

Many years pass in this manner. Sesshoumaru jumps from school to school, searching high and low for her, never having any luck. He poses as a substitute teacher, as a school counselor, as an infirmary doctor – anything that will allow him access to the school and their current needs in staff. He has no problem getting all of these positions despite his lack of experience. Sesshoumaru suspects a little divine intervention from his half-brother in the works, and silently thanks him. Still, Kikyo's reincarnation eludes him, and Sesshoumaru begins to wonder if he imagined it all in the first place.

Until one day, drinking water from a school fountain on his way to the first class of the semester, he sees the child again. Ten years has allowed a lot of growth and change, but those gentle blue eyes are unmistakable. The young student stops in her tracks, looking at Sesshoumaru with a far off look, as if recalling a distant memory.

And Sesshoumaru feels his heart skip just like he did that first day at the flower shop.

Still, he keeps his distance. He understands what an obstacle it may present to just blurt out his affection to the girl, especially if the soul doesn't remember that it once loved him.

The Kikyo of this period is called Kagome, and the humor behind the meaning of her new name makes him laugh: "Lost". But their names is where the differences stop. This Kagome is just as exuberant and extroverted, sparkling like the sun; and while he loved Kikyo, he can readily admit that he loves this Kagome just as much, if not more. But he cannot be sure of _her_ feelings. Even if she is a reincarnation, Kagome is still Kagome. Sesshoumaru holds on to the feeble hope that Kikyo's soul still loves him, and that their love can transcend death. He prays.

And on the final day of school after the graduation ceremony, when Kagome presents him with a sunflower and a shy, sparkling smile, he gets his answer.

* * *

A/N: In the end, Kagome does remember Kikyo's past life. She learns to love Sesshoumaru - not through Kikyo's memories - but her own.


	15. Of Monster's & Men

**Summary: **An ancient family pact must be kept, if Kagome is to appease the Mountain God.

**Disclaimer: **Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi.

**Author's Notes: **This was inspired by both "Beauty and the Beast" and the greek myth of "Eros and Psyche", with a little bit of Segoku Jidai thrown in. I always liked the idea of Inuyasha turning into a human every New Moon and wondered what would happen if another certain dog demon had a similar, unrelated curse. But halfway through the story I though that perhaps this had been done one too many times before and gave up on it. Stockholm-Syndrome romances are so early 2000s, after all. I _might_ come back to his later, but honestly I really doubt it. So in the mean time, enjoy.

* * *

**Of Monsters & Men**

**888**

'I don't like walking around

this old and empty house.'

'So hold my hand,

I'll walk with you, my dear.'

\- Little Talks, Of Monsters and Men

**888**

"Kagome, please forgive me."

Kagome turned from the open shoji door to look at her mother. The older woman was averting her gaze, her face set in deep lines of sadness and regret that made her look much older than her forty-five years of age. Her mother had always been a lovely creature full of life, but weeks without good crops had begun to take it's toll, and the kimono her mother wore all the time was beginning to look too big under the woman's thinning frame. She was losing weight, fast. It broke the maiden's heart to see her mother like that, and wanly Kagome smiled back at her.

"Do not apologize, mother. I will bring honor to my new role, rest assured."

The older woman shook her head, covering her mouth with a trembling hand while the other clasped the shoulder of Kagome's younger brother. A mere eight springs had passed for Souta - who was still too young to carry the burden of his heritage - and so at seventee years old, the duty now lay on Kagome's equally fragile shoulders. A burden that - despite the false bravado she displayed in front of her family - had her despairing at the unfairness of it all.

Looking down into her brother's wide brown eyes though, his sweet face smeared with hot tears, Kagome could not bring herself to hate him. After all, it was out of his control that their father had passed away prematurely and thus the weight of obligation now lay on her, the eldest child. She could not begrudge him the vicissitudes of fate nor his youth. In truth, Souta was unable to carry the family role due to age, not unwillingness.

Kagome's grandfather, leaning heavily against the doorway, growled under his breath. Head hung low, like his daughter-in-law, he fisted his gnarled fingers despairingly around his bamboo cane. "It should be me going up to the mountain, not my sweet granddaughter. If only I was not such a useless old man-"

"Ji-chan, enough!" Kagome insisted, racing forward to embrace the older man. She could feel his shaking shoulders, frail and brittle under the raspy fabric of his yukata, and she held him tighter to her, fighting the knot in her own throat. "Really, you guys, stop it. You all are acting as if I am walking towards my doom. You'll see – I shall fulfill our family's destiny and be back here by nightfall of next week." She assured them, faking a reassuring smile. Her family, a cloud of physical solemnity, nodded.

Kagome truly tried to believe her own words too.

Her village had a long-standing tradition that spanned generations before Kagome, as old as the earliest of scriptures in her grandfather's library. It was said that the humans and demons of that area had been in a terrible war that ravaged the land and threatened to end humanity. In order to end it, the holy priest braved the deadly hordes and unforgiving ice-cold temperatures to make a deal with the mountain God that lived at the edge of the snowy valley. If a member of the holy tribe brought offerings to the demon when the moon was at it's most full, the mountain God would protect the villagers from any and all tormenting demons. As tradition stipulated, only the eldest and most competent male offspring of the priest's line should fulfill this noblest of roles. And so, for decades, Kagome's family had been given the burden of taking that season's best crops and fine garments up the cold mountain and to the God, once a month on the night of the full moon.

That had been her father's job for as long as Kagome could remember. And now with his death, it was hers.

Truth be told, nobody knew what really transpired up in the mountains. Her family had been sworn into secrecy an only the male head of household had ever been blessed with seeing and speaking to the God. But the pact forbade them from speaking of it, as per the God's rule, and to do so was considered high-treason. Nobody in the village was willing to risk the merciful God's wrath for the mere chance of satiating their curiosity. The people depended on this secret being kept, and as such nobody, including Kagome, knew what to expect up there in the castle among the clouds.

She would find out soon enough.

Shouldering her pack and adjusting her fur coat, Kagome let out a sigh and began the long trek up.

* * *

Kagome may have gotten more enjoyment, or even spiritual solemnity, from the journey had it not been so miserable.

The mountain - looking pristine and ethereal with its fluffy snow wreath from the bottom of the village - was treacherously wretched. The ground that was not layered in thick, icy snow was barren and pebbly, making it near impossible to have steady footing. She had dressed herself warmly in preparation for the cold, but nothing had prepared her for the icy winds that cut through her thin frame like a blade and left her bones feeling brittle and hollow. The sun taunted her from above, a mere decorative specter that refused to shine with anything but the bare minimum effort.

The pretty raven stopped, trying to catch her breath and looked up the mountain, a low whine escaping her.

It had been hours since she had left her home at early dawn, before the sun itself had decided to peek it's dome over the horizon, and yet the distance to the top of the mountain seemed the same as when she had begun her journey: too far.

Letting out an annoyed growl, she grasped her walking stick tigthly and pushed herself onward.

"This God better be fucking worth it."

* * *

With the full moon illuminating the entrance of the castle, Kagome would be lying if she said she was not surprised speechless. She was not sure what she had been expecting to meet her at the door – a feral demon servant maybe, or an entire army protecting the gates. Perhaps even the God himself, shining in all of his mythical glory.

But certainly not a human man.

Kagome took him in slowly - the young man's lustrous black hair that pooled around his shoulders and down to the small of his back like spilled ink; the elegant planes of his face like polished porcelain; the sharp, clever set of his amber, almost alient eyes. Human he may have been, but he was certainly the most regal and beautiful creature that she had ever spied.

The man, a full foot and a half taller than her, raised an eyebrow. The maiden swallowed, embarrassed at the length of her ogling.

Quick to remember her manners, Kagome took a deep bow. "Greetings, noble sir." She began, in her most solemn and official tone; the same one she had spied her father use whenever he gave lessons to Souta once he became the next priest.

Licking her lips nervously at his lack of reaction, she pressed on. "I am but the humble servant from the village at the bottom of this lord's magnificent mountain. This lowly one has brought thy lord offerings, to ensure his happiness and continued health. Please, I beg thee to accept them."

Kagome remained in her bow, done with her speech. She waited for the man to reply, but he said nothing.

Seconds ticked by.

Kagome's back began to ache, and her nose inconveniently began itching at that very moment-

-and then at last he spoke.

"Where is Higurashi-san?"

Kagome's heart panged painfully at her father's mention, but she remained in her reverential stance.

"My father, Sir Higurashi, has passed away. I, his eldest offspring, shall happily continue to fulfill his role in his absence, if it pleases my Lord."

The man was once more silent, and Kagome dared to peek through her bangs at him. She almost forgot her position when she saw the most curious expression cross his face. It was lighting fast and the darkness of the night did not help her identification of it, but… Was that sadness?

"I see…"the man said at length, his face once more schooled into a mask of indifference. His strange amber eyes roamed up and down her form, making her squirm under his intense scrutiny. Kagome had never seen someone with his eye color – an electric, wild yellow, like the color of bottled lightning - and idly she wondered if he were a demon of some sort. But, then again, her own eye pigment was strange among her people as well: bright marine blue, like the sky on a summer day. A hereditary gift from her father that had been passed down to her alone – Souta's eyes in contrast were the sweet and warm brown of their mother's.

"You must be Kagome-san." He spoke at last, snapping the strings of her thoughts and sending her crashing to reality.

At the mention of her name, Kagome snapped back into a full-standing position, her surprise overtaking her manners. "Yes! How-"

"Your father, Higurashi-san, often spoke fondly of you. By his description, I would recognize you anywhere." Kagome stared openly, her mouth slightly open, her cheeks flushed. She felt tears sting the back of her eyes. So her father spoke of her…? To the demon God and his entourage, of all people?

The young man was looking at her, intently, seeming to ponder something. He began speaking again and Kagome strained to catch every rumbled rasp of his voice. He spoke both softly yet deeply, deeper than her own father's voice, and Kagome tried to ignore how the sound of it sent tingles down her spine.

"I am sorry to hear about your father. Truly." The stranger murmured sincerely. His mouth set into a thin line, and Kagome could swear he was grimacing. "He was a great man and lovely company in this desolate place. He will surely be missed."

"Thank you." Kagome replied quietly, and she found she meant it. The sorrowful platitudes coming from her neighbors and friends had been comforting but expected. To hear it come from a complete stranger though, one that seemed to be in a higher position and a superior to her father's, was definitely a little more surprising and therefore more heartfelt. Who was this gentle man with the strange yellow eyes and the kind heart?

Kagome licked her lips, hesitating, but soon her curiosity prompted her to ask what had been niggling at her since first meeting him.

"Pardon my impertinence but…Why are you here, noble sir? Are you a prisoner to this Lord's castle, or a servant?"

The man blinked at her with the barest hint of a frown, confused at her question, and for a heart-stopping moment Kagome thought she had overstepped her boundaries. Fumbling over her lack of manners, she began to mumble an apology when the barest hint of a smile appeared on his face, wiping away all thoughts from her brain except for one single 'Oh'.

He was incredibly handsome even when slack-faced and solemn…but Kagome thought she rather liked the open expression on him. It softened the sharp features of his face, the piercing angle of his amber eyes, made him seem so much more handsome, if possible…

The man made a noise through his nose that very well sounded like a short derisive laugh, sardonic even. " A servant or a prisoner, you ask…" he murmured darkly. "A little bit of both. You could say I am Lord Sesshoumaru's most trusted confidant." And with a mysterious smirk, he left it at that.

"You may call me Taisho. Please, come inside the castle. The night grows colder."

* * *

AN: That's all she wrote. You know the drill, R&R!

Backstory: Sesshoumaru is the mountain God, tied to the snowy place by a curse placed on him by a devilish witch; a curse that also turns him into a human every full moon. Years ago, he made a pact with Kagome's ancestor in the hope that their family could one day find a way to break the curse. The offerings are an excuse that ties the priest to research the curse and also bring him news of the outside world. Kagome discover's her father's research on the curse, but does not understand what it means.

After all, how does one find true love...for a God?


	16. Dreams

**Summary:** Kagome has a nightmare.

**Disclaimer:** Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi.

**Author's Notes:** Just a sweet little idea that popped into my mind. Sometimes, in your life, comfort comes from the most unlikely sources.

* * *

**Dream**

**888**

Kagome woke to the land of the living with a hand on her mouth and a scream stuck in her throat. It was only after blinking past the tears that she realized the hand was her own, silencing the shrill shrieks she could still hear in the ghost of the nightmare. Heart hammering in her chest rather painfully, she looked around in the dark trying to recall where she currently was.

The cool summer wind and the pungent aroma of nature did its job of dissipating whatever echoes of the dream she had and reminding her that she was currently in the Sengoku Jidai. A quick survey of her surroundings showed the huddled forms of her compatriots sleeping soundlessly in the dark: Sango and Miroku snuggled together, their hands intertwined as they slept - a new, though unsurprising, development in their relationshiop; Shippo and Rin sharing one sleeping bag, blissfully peaceful; and Inuyasha resting with his back against the tree, silver ears twitching, but otherwise undisturbed by her muffled cry.

Still shaking, Kagome wrestled with her feelings. The nightmare had left her pretty shaken, but seeking comfort from any of them seemed not only pointless, but rather selfish. She did not want to disturb the fragile intimacy blooming between the demon huntress and the monk. Although she loved Shippo and Rin, she struggled to see how two children - however mature they were due to the war they grew up in - could possibly comfort the grown worries of an adult woman. And Inuyasha...If she were to wake Inuyasha, would he put his arm around her, or push her away as he often did? She didn't think she could bear his rejection when she so desperately needed the opposite.

The hunt for Naraku grew more perilous with each day and with it the despair built inside of Kagome with terrorizing fervor. Kagome truly wondered if she would truly make it back to her time alive. The certainty of that seemed tremulous at best, currently.

Hugging her legs to her chest and placing her forehead atop her knees, Kagome focused on steadying her breathing. In any case, it seemed rather insensitive of her to wake up her friends only to say "I miss my family"; especially considering their own circumstances. At least she still had family to miss, however millennia away they were now.

"Miko."

Despite how low and smooth it was, his voice cut through her internal musings like a whip, and Kagome still let out a strangled gasp. Looking up, she locked eyes with the taiyoukai.

Sesshoumaru.

She had not spied him right away in her first purview; but then again, she hadn't been looking for him either. His addition to their entourage had been recent and rather tense, and Kagome still did not know where exactly she stood with the the taiyoukai. Earlier that week she had purified a demon that had been aiming at his back, and he in turn had saved her from another demon's jaws - though if it had been purely accidental in his blind rampage against the hordes attacking all of them, she still did not know. And therein lay Kagome's relatioship with the regal demon lord in a nutshell - constant uncertainty.

At least with Inuyasha, she had some form of expectation to what any of his reactions might be. But where Inuyasha was an open book, Sesshoumaru was a sealed library, and she did not know the man enough to predict his responses. Perhaps because of that her own brain had completely dismissed him as a possibility of comfort.

Even as he sat a mere few feet away from her, his eyes hyper-focused on her and glinting strangely in the moonlight, Kagome was still reluctant to open up to him.

"What is wrong?" he questioned, and his deep voice gave nothing away - no concern or annoyance, or anything really. His lack of emotion contrasted against Kagome's current state of overwhelming feelings, unnerving her.

Kagome licked her dry lips, limbs still shaking under the memory of her visions. She closed her eyes, willing the phantom images away.

"Nightmare." she whispered softly under her breath, knowing that his super-human ears would catch it. "Just a nightmare. I'm sorry I woke you, lord Sesshoumaru."

Sesshoumaru stared at the shivering girl, obviously rattled by whatever she had seen in her sleep. In that second, she reminded him so much of his own Rin when she had night terrors. " I was already awake." He placated gently, just loud enough for her to hear. Yes, he had been awake to see her rise with terror in her eyes, looked around in search of something that wasn't there, her sight completely glossing over him - unseeing, as if he were mere air - and instead landing on his half-brother with anguished longing. A longing that, curiously, made Sesshoumaru's chest ache strangely. But if he disliked the feeling in his chest, he disliked seeing the usually brave, strong miko looking so small and forlorn. So heartbreakingly fragile...

Kagome's head was still resting on her knees when she felt the rustle of fabric against her arm. She barely had time to react when his hand - large and powerful and masculine - rested heavily against her shoulder and pressed unrelentingly until her side was flushed against his own. Kagome stared wide-eyed at the dirt between her feet, as the reality of the moment asserted itself.

Sesshoumaru settled in his seat next to her, his thumb rubbing soothing circles against her bare shoulder. Feeling fluttery and disoriented, Kagome accepted his embrace, more out of surprise than actual desire.

"It's alright." Sesshoumaru reassured the young miko, and again Sesshoumaru felt an ache in his chest, different than the one from before but just as powerful. "It was just a dream."

* * *

An: fluffy fluff is fluffy. As always R& R please!

**ALSO, NO I HAVE NOT ABANDONED ANY OF MY OTHER FICS**. I am still working on all of them as we speak, but I just want to build up a nice library of updates before posting and then disappearing for months on end! Thank you all so much for your continuous support! :)


	17. Revenge & Solace

**Summary: **The one where Kagome is not a witch and Sesshoumaru is a nihilistic demon.

**Disclaimer:** Inuyasha and it's characters are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi.

* * *

**Revenge and Solace Never Go Hand in Hand**

**888**

_1580 a.c., rural France._

"Are you a witch?" Sesshoumaru asked her again, his voice loud and intimidating against the silence of the woods. And yet, she did not cower.

The lone woman continued picking at the herbs on the ground and putting them in her basket, undisturbed by his accusation. "How curious that whenever men meet a woman of equal or superior intellect, they can only surmise that her wit is due to magic rather than education or natural disposition."

"But I am not a _man_." Sesshoumaru rumbled imperiously. An unnecessary clarification, Kagome thought with a roll of her eyes; as if his inhuman features did not give away his demonic origins already.

"Then you should know better than to _act_ like one." she smiled waspishly.

And despite her insolence, Sesshoumaru felt the corners of his lips tug upwards for the first time in many years.

* * *

"So you are truly not a witch, then?"

The human woman - _Kagome_, his thoughts reminded him intrusively - put the herbs inside the mortar, pounding them into a fine dust. She shook her head with a light laugh, the dark hair spilling from her bun and around her shoulders like midnight rivers. "I am a scientist, a doctor and, above all, a healer."

Sesshoumaru snorted derisively. "All dangerous things for a woman to be in these primitive times. In other words, you are not long for this patriarchal and religious world."

"You are not wrong." Kagome smiled wanly, and Sesshoumaru's grin disappeared at the flippancy with which she discussed her own death. "But I will make the most of my time here, and heal as many people as I can while I still have breath."

"Why, though?" Sesshoumaru growled, growing more confused and frustrated with the pretty raven as the conversation developed. "The humans don't deserve it."

"Because it is what I _want_." she replied patiently, in the same tone one would adopt to teach a child a very important lesson. "I _want_ to help my people, no matter what. If that means signing my own death sentence, so be it." She put the mortar down and turned to stare at the troubled youkai sitting in her living room as if he owned it, more fallen angel than demon prince.

"What about you, Lord Sesshoumaru: have you ever wanted anything so much in your life that you would risk everything for it?"

And as Sesshoumaru stared into her bright, blue eyes, the demon lord found himself thinking that he would very much like to have something like that.

* * *

"Just show me where your library is, and I'll get out of your hair. You don't have to be so secretive!"

That gave the demon lord pause. "This Sesshoumaru does not have secrets."

"Well, if you *presumably* had a secret, where would you hide it?"

"Somewhere no one could easily invade."

"And that would be?"

"Here." Sesshoumaru pointed to the left side of his chest, sharp nails grazing the white silk of his kimono. Kagome didn't have to ask where exactly he was referring to.

Biting her lip, she choked back a laugh. "That's a rather difficult place to reach, indeed."

Kagome gasped as he suddenly took her hand and, both gentle and forceful, rested it over his heart. Beneath her trembling fingers, his heart beat explosively in a powerful, staccato rhythm; like the wings of a great eagle.

"Only if you don't know the way." He whispered, raw and close.

* * *

"If we show them the truth about the world and how it works...they'll understand. They won't be so scared anymore." Kagome whispered, tracing the pink stripes tattooed along his forearms with childish innocence. There was so much trust in that one simple action, in that gentle caress. With one careless motion, Sesshoumaru could accidentally break each and every one of those delicate fingers; he was that powerful, and she that fragile.

_I could hurt her, _he thought, and the concept chilled him to his very core.

_But... I don't want to._

"Teach me all you know about science, Sesshoumaru...and maybe I can teach you to like humans again."

Sesshoumaru placed light fingers on her small chin - silk porcelain over glass bones - and carefully urged her face upward, all of a sudden obsessively aware of how frighteningly mortal she was. He was gratified to see a gentle blush dust her cheeks as their eyes met.

"I like *you*." he confessed quietly. His lips drew near her own pink ones, sweetly parted in invitation. "And that is enough for me."

* * *

The clergyman grabbed a fistful of Kagome's hair, tugging with painful intensity until he was dragging her upward and off her feet. The pretty raven tried to turn her face away from his; but he just shook her harder, eliciting another helpless cry from the maiden.

"Kagome Higurashi, you are so far gone you can not see that all you are spouting are the words of the Devil. Your supposed 'knowledge' are the lies of Satan, your tools his infernal devices." he accused darkly, gesturing to her chemistry table where she brew her medicine, laden with all the artifacts and books Sesshoumaru had gifted her.

Kagome glared past the tears of pain to the handsome man before her, knowing his angel face to be nothing but a mask.

"The only devil I see here is you... Naraku."

And at the name, Kagome thought she saw a hint of remembrance in those familiar red eyes of his; of early days, when they used to play in the woods together as children, free of obligations or duties. When after seeing all the suffering in the world, they had sworn to serve humanity - he, through the church; she, through medicine. When he had asked her to be his wife, and she had delicately refused, professing science to be her true love and causing him to end their friendship forever.

Just as quickly, the darkness veiled his eyes again, and a cruel smile adorned his Adonis lips.

"That is Lord Bishop to you, _witch_."

* * *

Kagome cried freely now, as the flames licked her bare flesh, the pain blinding.

"Don't hurt them." she whispered through cracked lips and dried blood, coughing fitfully as she swallowed smoke and ashes. "They don't know any better, _please_ don't hurt them."

But Sesshoumaru was not there to hear her plea. He was not there to see her burn alive.

And at the thought of him - her beloved's beautiful face distorted in grief at the news of her death, left to waste all alone in this great, empty world - Kagome wept harder.

She wept for him until the flames swallowed her whole.

* * *

Sesshoumaru stared at the burning remains of their hut, reduced to nothing but cinders and embers. More worrisome still was the scent of _her_ blood, lingering under the acrid smell of charcoal and hate.

"Were ye her lover?"

Sesshoumaru turned to the old woman standing a few ways away from what used to be the garden. She had an eye-patch over one eye and a bow slung across the hump of her back, her bent spine bowing her frame into a permanent squat. In her gnarled hands, she held a solemn bouquet of white lilies.

"She spoke of ye, y'know? I could recognize ye from anywhere, how much she talked about ye. Kagome said ye was as beautiful as ye was gentle, that she said."

Sesshoumaru did not miss the old woman's use of past tense. His sharp nails dug into his palms until they drew blood.

"What happened here?" he heard himself ask, hollow and far away.

"The Lord Bishop ordered it to be burned down. The devil's lair, he calls it. It's not right, what they's do to her. I never thought she did witchcraft; she was much too lovely and too smart for such dark things, that Kagome was. But the Lord Bishop-" The old woman stopped talking, and with a gasp the flowers in her hands slipped through limp fingers, scattering to the ground.

Before her, Sesshoumaru's eyes bled into a crimson red, his teeth bared to reveal long, sharp fangs.

Although she kept it a secret due to the intense fanaticism of the land, Kaede was, truthfully, not a very religious woman. She had no real faith in a God - if he existed, he had never been overly kind to her or her family - and all the scriptures read more like fairytales than fact to her. No, if truly pressed about the subject, Kaede did not believe.

But in that very moment, standing before her neighbor's burnt house and scorned lover, she knew -

\- Kaede was looking at the devil himself.

"**_Where. Is. She?_**" he thundered each word, his form growing before her very eyes into a dark creature of the night, so large he eclipsed the full moon.

_Lord have mercy on us all_, Kaede thought, tears blistering behind her one good eye.

* * *

Sesshoumaru watched the fire slash down the buildings of the town, like psychedelic tear tracks, but he found no solace in his heart.

Revenge, this time, was a dish that had been served cold and stale, with little to no pleasure on his part. The monsters that had taken his purpose in life, his Kagome - _sweet, beautiful, kind Kagome_ \- had been burned, both literally and metaphorically, at the stake.

But all that it brought was poisonous fumes to his lungs and ashes to his eyes.

END.

* * *

**AN:** That last paragraph was the first one I wrote for this drabble, inspired by the phrase "Psychedelic Tear Tracks" that would just not leave my brain. I wondered what scenario could possibly push Sesshoumaru to want revenge on anybody.

For those of you still confused, this is set in 1580's France, during the pinnacle of the witch-hunt frenzy running through Europe. Many innocent women were falsely accused and executed during this time. Shocking but sadly true. After rewatching "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" I thought it would be an interesting backdrop for our main characters.


End file.
